Stronger!
by shunozuko18
Summary: Where Naruto came from, he wasn't ostracized but was heralded. What happens when he is transported to a place where he treated the opposite way? In a place that is more than meets the eye. A stronger and smarter Naruto is made. The Shinobi world is up for a surprise in the coming of a new Mailstrom..Stronger/Smarter Naruto with access to Fuinjutsu.(ps. I do not own the Cover Image)
1. Chapter 1: The New Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other Reference character I may use in here. The plot however, I do own. I hope you do enjoy reading this. I do not have a beta reader nor is English my first language(In fact, It is my third) so I also would like your consideration and help in correcting any mistakes I make.

* * *

(Semi)IMPORTANT NOTES! This will be things you should know before reading the story. Or you can just simply not read these and figure things out yourself and let your mind fill in the blank spots which would be more fun.

*The age of the characters are 3 years higher in cannon events, as such- Kakashi became Chunnin at 9(6 in cannon) and Jounin in 14(12 in cannon). Academy starts at 7 years of age but now ends in 15(12 in cannon). This is so that we(I) don't need to imagine 12 year old prepubescent kids being romantic and all which incredibly grosses me out. 15 sounds better for me though. Still, I won't promise any smut.

*OOC (out of character) alert! This one should have been obvious.

*Other anime (manga) elements. There won't be crossovers but there will be characters from other universes(series) with similar abilities but are adjusted to fit in the Naruto verse. There will be some random OC's though they won't be having any major part on this story(vendors, guards, random ninja,etc...).

*I'm not that good with describing characteristics and it's the reason I'll be using other anime references so that I can easily describe them, I hope the readers won't mind too much.

*This is my second fanfic, my first didn't wasn't that good in my opinion since Naruto seemed to have too much at his disposal in the opening of the story. Nevertheless, I'd gladly continue it if you give me enough motivations.-

* * *

"Hey, that's mine"- speaking

'I wonder what I'll have for dinner?' - thoughts

 **Bold letters** means tailed beast talking,jutsu or **sfx**

* * *

Chapter 1- A Parallel Dimension

In one universe which most of us know; Naruto Uzumaki was born during the day of the Kyuubi attack, sacrificed by his father to become a Jinchūriki and seal the Kyuubi. He was supposed to be heralded as a hero who would keep the beast at bay and at one point in time, harness its power for the good of The Village hidden in the Leaves (Konohagakure) or more commonly known as Konoha. That is however something that did not happen, for the information of him holding the beast was leaked before the Third Hokage could explain what good there is to it. As such he was instead criticized as a monster or abomination for they were mere civilians with little knowledge of how the ninja world works. He would then grow into a world of loneliness with little help and guidance, his potential hampered with only little of it realized only when he grows up.

However, the Naruto of this story didn't come from that world or universe. Where he came from, the news of him being a Jinchūriki wasn't revealed until the third Hokage was able to convince the people that he was a hero who would be their guardian. His parentage wasn't revealed to the public or to him though. That would only invite assassins who held a grudge from his father or those who fear for his potential, he is his father's son after all. He grew up loved and cherished. Thus he never lacked any attention or guidance leading to him instead, having too much of it and a bit suffocated by it. The Uchiha massacre never happened as the blame of the Kyuubi attack wasn't put to them. Neither did the Hyuga abduction take place since the Uchiha were there to catch the culprit instead of killing it. Still, he didn't have that much of connection to the two families though; he didn't want more attention than he already had.

* * *

On one of the busiest streets of Konoha during a cloudy day, a fifteen year old blonde teen with azure blue eyes can be seen walking with both his hands carrying quite a number of bags containing random fruits and vegetables. He had a sun kissed-tanned complexion with three whiskers like marks adorned on his cheeks. The sad teen was also wearing Dark green cargo pants and black Tee Shirt with an Uzumaki swirl embedded on the back of the shirt.

"Naruto-sama, would you like some apples? I have some here that arrived just now. It's imported from the Kumo so it's sure to have a great taste" A middle aged brunette store owner called out to him.

"Thanks Miss Kana, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline for now. My hands are full at the moment" Naruto replied raising the bags he is holding a bit to emphasize his point.

"Ah, Of course you do. I always wonder why you would not receive any of the villager's gifts in the market Naruto-sama; you wouldn't have to buy those if you had. After all, you are our guardian and hero; we are only showing our appreciation for what you have done" Kana answered.

Naruto was about to answer when a new voice entered the conversation.

"Declining freebies from the public eh…Naruto?" A new voice entered the conversation.

Naruto looked at the newcomer who was wearing short-sleeved grey jacket with green-edged sleeves with the Nara clan symbol on the back. He excused himself from the store owner and walked away together with his new companion for a bit then started to jump on the roofs of the houses before replying to his previous statement. There were lesser chances of being noticed above the roofs after all.

"If I keep on accepting their gifts, that would make me rely on them too much and them go bankrupt, Shikamaru. Besides, you know I don't like their attention that much, I don't deserve them" Naruto retorted.

The now named Shikamaru sighed before speaking. "Always the modest one, you do realize that's one the reason they like you too much. You're way too good of a person"

"Sasuke is almost the complete opposite of me who always broods but still gets a lot of attention; it's not about me being good. It is about them over appreciating what happened to me. It's not even my choice. Sometimes I wish I didn't get the beast sealed inside me, but I know I'm the only one capable of holding it right now. What with being the last Uzumaki on Konoha. Sometimes, I even wish they didn't know I was the Jinchūriki of this beast or better yet, the third didn't have to make me some glorified prison for the beast" Naruto ranted a bit.

"That's even more troublesome. Do you even know how the Jinchūriki of the other hidden villages are treated? You are lucky you've been spared of what they are going through. I heard they aren't even being treated as humans"

"At least they have personal space and time for themselves. Uncle Jiraiya even said some of them get to live outside their villages. And here I am trapped here in this village with these people kissing the very ground I walk through"

"You wouldn't want them to hear what you just said"

"We're too far for them to hear us Shikamaru, and I'm sure the anbu guards stationed to guard me have already known my opinion of people like those for a while now"

Just as Naruto finished speaking, they arrived on a grassy hill that was an unused training ground though there could be nobody seen anywhere in the vicinity. Shikamaru dropped on his feet and sprawled himself on the grass, laying as if without care for the world, a moment later. Naruto dropped his belongings before he copied Shikamaru's actions. They talked about a few random things before finally deciding to keep the silence and watch as the clouds move in the sky.

The two had been friends for the longest compared to their other classmates. Naruto liked Shikamaru the most. His other classmates especially the girls, were way too fond of him to his liking. One particular pair of them irritated him the most which were the civilian girl named Sakura Haruno who had the most ridiculous hair color of all things and another who wasn't acting like the clan heir she is, Ino Yamanaka. Together, they were the head of the Naruto and Sasuke Fan club. They didn't seem to mind that they had two targets of affection. The only female classmate he considered normal was Hinata Hyuga; who was reserved and calm like how a true clan heir should act.

Chouji Akimichi was another friend of him and Shikamaru. The boy ate a lot but was friendly enough to be around; just don't make the mistake of calling him fat though that would mean trouble. There was Kiba Inuzuka who kept on hitting on any of their female classmates without success then there was Shino Aburame, who Naruto couldn't describe in any way but silent and calculative. There are a lot more classmates he had but most of them didn't have clan affiliation and in turn, were to by their parents to be "friendly" to Naruto since he was the village hero. Naruto hated being the center of attention, he didn't mind kindness but there was way too much attention that it was suffocating him. Thankfully, most of the clan kids weren't that way with him. He didn't have too much interaction with ninjas outside his grandpa Hiruzen, Kakashi-Nii or Uncle Jiraiya;who was his appointed godfather. While he wasn't told of his heritage, he wasn't dumb enough not to be able to deduce things on his own, He just kept quiet for the same reasons it wasn't revealed to the public.

Time went on and the two males fell asleep on the hill while watching the clouds, they usually did this when they had nothing to do between classes or during weekends.

* * *

(A few hours later)

"Hey Shikamaru, wake up. It's already noon! We need to get you home before your mother scolds you again" Naruto nudged the boy rather forcefully only stopping until he saw a reaction.

"Yeah, Yeah, I get it. I'll walk home alone this time. My mom would put the blame on me again when she realizes we are being lazy again. Honestly, why does she blame me for you sleeping on this wonderful day? Who wouldn't want to laze around with this weather?" Shikamaru sat up and kept rubbing his eyes to clear his vision.

He looked around when he didn't get any reply. He noticed that there was only about less than two hours before the sun set and Naruto was nowhere to found.

"Guess he knew I wouldn't want him to take me home this time" he dusted himself off before leaving.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto arrived at his home and dropped his bags. He noticed his godfather was writing something with a lecherous glint in his eyes. 'Pervert..' He thought.

"Welcome back Naruto, had a nap with the nara kid again?" Jiraiya greeted.

"The names Shikamaru, but yes. I was taking a nap with him, same spot as always" He answered.

"You'll be starting your intermediate fuin training tomorrow. The guide books are already in the study room as well as the supplies needed. The ring's there as well, don't forget to remove the one you are wearing before using the new ring, otherwise it won't work" Jiraiya said while he closed his book and finished his work.

"If you had started me earlier, then I probably am more than on advanced already. Seriously, you do realize any Uzumaki has great potential for Fuinjutsu. Look at me, I'm not even that good yet I blitzed through the beginners level in less than three weeks which you took…..." Naruto started but was interrupted.

"Three months to learn. Blah, do not need to keep rubbing it on me you know. I'm not an Uzumaki" Jiraiya finished.

"Jiji only took two months. The Yondaime took the less than three months too"

Jiraiya felt insulted "Hey, I got farther than the third in terms of progress and the Minato's already gone." He stopped for a bit realizing where the conversation was heading to. "Ughhh….fine. I'm sorry I didn't teach you earlier. It was for your own good. We don't know what a child who is learning Fuinjutsu would do if he sees a "cool" or "amazing" example of such art in his stomach. I don't know, maybe he'd experiment on it for fun without thinking he may release the beast hell bent on destruction locked inside? He still young after all" he finished.

Naruto was silent for a moment before answering in an almost inaudible tone "I wasn't that immature"

A messenger hawk then entered through the window and delivered a scroll, Jiraiya opened it and read it immediately before going to his room and changed his clothes. On his way out he ruffled Naruto's hair before speaking.

"Keep telling that to yourself gaki. The foods ready on the kitchen, make sure you seal off some for me to keep the freshness. I'll be back in the midnight."

Jiraiya was already on his usual attire that consisted of a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armour that is visible at his wrists and ankles. He also wore hand guards, a black belt, traditional Japanese wooden sandals, and a red haori with two yellow circles on each side. He was already on the door and was about to leave before giving Naruto a final message "Oh, and don't touch the scroll I left on my table in the study room. It's a relic from Uzushio and looks pretty advanced. So we don't know what they might be yet since I was rushed into bringing them here just a while ago and didn't have the time to fully inspect them"

"I guess the study rooms for me alone to enjoy tonight hehe" A chuckle escaped his lips.

"Might as well eat before reading"

Naruto walked through the kitchen and ate the dinner prepared by Sannin. The food was pretty simple. A few egg omelettes, vegetable soup and a pitcher of fruit juice and of course, Rice. The Sannin really did take good care of his nutritional thought about the past while eating.

Upon being heralded as the hero of the leaf during his birth. The majority of the clans in Konoha Ninja or Civilian, requested to be bestowed the right to adopt Naruto. Some due to political reasons but most of them had been genuinely thankful for his purpose. He was then adopted by Jiraiya of the Sannin with the reasoning that he was the most skilled at Fuinjutsu as well as combat and thus the best choice; they never knew he was his godfather though. Jiraiya wasn't always at home but he was there from time to time, he was a busy man after all;vwhat with being Konoha's best spy and one of the legendary Sannin. Kakashi also acted as his big brother and moved to the Sannin's mansion for a while as it had plenty of room to spare. Although he moved out when He became a Jounin instructor when Naruto had reached the age of an academy student(6) and was quite a diligent one so he trained his students meticulously.

Naruto grew up with too much affection and attention that it suffocated him. He had liked it at the start but too much of something was never good. The children had been taught by their parents to adore him thus he found it hard to find true companions that would like him for who he was not what he is. In addition to the fact that he was already popular as a hero, he was also the top ninja of the year in every year with Sasuke Uchiha coming in second. This made him even more popular and thus received even more attention that he never wanted. There were times when he deliberately tried to do several bad things but nothing too severe to see what the reaction of the public would be. Alas, unlike most kids who would be scolded. His actions were treated differently. When he tried to verbally bully somebody, that one would be hated by everyone for a while. When he fought for the wrong reason, the defendant would be considered the offender and he would be the victim. He had tried pranking only to have the people pass out his pranks that would sometimes compromise stores as childish humour, heck that was just last year and he was 14 already! He hated that he was over appreciated, he hated that nobody treated him like a normal person minus, he hated that they would suck up his ass even if he was on the wrong. It was unfair; he didn't deserve any of those. He wanted to live a normal life where he could focus on being a ninja and not a public figure. Naruto's train of thought was broken when he realized that he was getting to emotional over something he had no control of.

He finished his meal and sealed of what he divided for Jiraiya for preservation. He then walked to the sofa on the living room and relaxed for a while before getting bored so he looked at the clock which pointed out 7:40 pm and thought 'Might as well read the books in advance, this time it should be easier since I already know the basic principles of Fuinjutsu'

With that thought in mind, he left for the study room. The Sannin's residence was actually a mansion left by Naruto's parents but was hidden to the public. It was bought by the Yondaime for the purpose of providing Naruto a great environment for growing up. A beautiful garden full of herbs and Fruit trees, A balcony like most mansions had, Dining areas with tiles, A huge study room with a library; those were only a few things that could be found inside the residence which was pretty close to the Hokage tower as well as the Police station manned by the Uchiha's; thus was quite far from the civilian areas.

Naruto entered the study room. It was a a huge rectangular room. Its walls of the room were made of wood that were supposedly created by Shodai Hokage so they lasted longer with their aesthetics being preserved beautifully due to the addition of the preservation and other aesthetical improvising seals etched on the different parts of the room. The room looked so naturally that one would mistake it for a tree house or a room built inside the trunk of an enormous tree. The tables, chairs and shelves for books were even made from the same materials. The ceiling itself were made of leaves that could be easily compared to the numerous trees spread throughout Konoha, though they are only wallpapers enhanced with Fuinjutsu to look like real leaves.

The first area upon entering the room was the main study area. It had three study chair and table set separated for him, Jiraiya and Kakashi. Kakashi's area had been unused for a while now as he had already moved out of the mansion. The Sannin's area was the busiest one; scrolls, brushes, notebooks and a shelf as well as a folder cabinet on the opposite side of the shelf, Naruto knew there were no immensely confidential information there though. The Sannin was a goofy one but he wasn't dumb. Naruto's area looked like how any other study table should; lamplight, notebooks, pens and other stuffs you would expect from an academy student could be found.

He picked up the ring placed on his table and wore it but not before placing his previous on one of the drawers of the table. The ring was an entrée clearance for the library on the left side of the study room. The level of the ring decided which books you could read there. The rings would resonate to the scrolls and books and allow you to use them as the text and content would appear depending on the clearance level of the ring. The scrolls and books would be blank if you didn't have enough clearance level so it would prevent someone from learning things he wasn't supposed to know yet. Not that anyone could enter the library without permission though, anybody not wearing a ring would only see a wall there without any door and the door to the study room itself required the person to be given personal entrance rights which currently, only four people of Konoha today had been given. The third Hokage being the fourth person to have entrée rights other than Naruto, Jiraiya and Kakashi.

The library itself which was on the left side had a higher ceiling due it being a full of books as such needed a second floor for the hundreds of books and scrolls contained by the shelves and cabinets. Some of the information that could be found here cannot even be found in the Konoha-Nin Library even on the highest clearance, the Hokage's library was another topic though. The right side of the room was a relaxation area, or so as the Sannin said. That side of the room was Naruto's favourite as he had always wished to bring his Nara friend there to relax. It was Area inside the study room that was a 'portal' by itself. The Fuinjutsu work made there was sure to be very advanced. Outside the area, when one would look at it. It was just a simple space with tons of seals written on the walls that overlapped with one another with a door on the end of it. Too complex for even Jiraiya to make, it was the joint effort of the Yondaime and his wife that made it possible. Upon stepping inside the area, one would be amazed. It would take you a place that looks like one of the beautiful clearings of the Great Mount Myōboku (aka. Land of the toads). The door at the end of the room was actually a dimensional rift that would take you to the actual place and not just the illusion which the actual room actually was. Not that Naruto could use it for that purpose. To him, it was just a door whose other side was solid wall. As of right now, only Jiraiya could use that door as only he was a living person who had signed the toad contract.

There was no denying that the room gave a tranquil and natural feeling of being in a forest, Jiraiya said that the Yondaime and his wife purposely worked hard to make this study room designed this way to give them full concentration when studying. Jiraiya had introduced Naruto to this study room when he started his academy days. His first ring being an academy student clearance level ring, then Level 1 access and right now which the Level 2 access was; there were 10 levels and Naruto knew he had only seen the tip of the iceberg. The prospect of having complete access to all these books gathered by his predecessors which were the Uzumaki of the Uzushio made Naruto felt very excited. These books and scrolls were what were collected by Konoha on the fall of Uzushio. Luckily they had salvaged a little which were these books. Most had been already plundered by the joint forces that attacked the hidden village.

'Speaking of Uzushio. I wonder what that scroll Jiraiya had brought' Naruto thought as he looked at the table of his sensei where the scroll was placed.

Naruto's curiosity was even more piqued when the said scroll started to glow. He was entranced by the faint glow and started to walk close to the Sannin's table which were only a few steps away. Each step taken slowly like he was being hypnotized.

'Come closer, Kin of the Uzumaki. At least one of us must be saved'

Something whispered to his ear as he stepped closer. He was in front of the scroll as he extended his hand to touch it.

"Dont!" The door slammed open and the loud voice of Jiraiya echoed on the room "Naruto Don't!"

The voice of Jiraiya stopped Naruto on his tracks, effectively shocking him out of the hypnotic trance he was in.

"That scroll was salvaged in the ruins of Uzushio. I found it on a place that was once called 'The tower of desperation'. We don't have any idea of anything that might be contained within that thing. Don't remove your hand on the scroll left. It's still glowing, you might have activated some sort of mechanism" The Sannin's voice held both panic and concern. He schooled his expressions before walking forth towards Naruto.

Naruto's eyes grew wide as he looked at his extended hand and realized the severity of the situation. True to Jiraiya's words, the scroll was glowing and his hand was still on it.

The scroll suddenly opened and random inscriptions burst forth from the scroll floating around Naruto, encircling him. Jiraiya's study table and anything along with it were blown away.

Naruto was about to move but Jiraiya's words stopped him "Don't move Naruto, let me inspect the situation first"

'Darn, why did I have to be such a dumbass touching the stupid scroll' Naruto thought to himself. He didn't notice that his body was starting to become clearer as if vanishing. Jiraiya himself was too busy inspecting the inscriptions that he wasn't able to notice it.

"This is no simple feat of Fuinjutsu. Seals, Runes, Glyphs and many more are intertwined. What have you gotten yourself into this time Naruto…." He looked at Naruto only now noticing his vanishing body "No….No…This can't be, I can't lose you!" He dashed forth hoping to trespass whatever was encircling Naruto but was bounced back by the floating inscriptions with a rather strong force.

He could only watch as Naruto vanished along with whatever that had made him vanish. Jiraiya ran towards the scroll only to find that it was already blank. He could no longer detect any residual chakra from the spot where Naruto stood before.

He fell into his knees, his shoulders slump and eyes watery.

"why…Why… **WHY!**." It started of as a whisper but got louder till it became a full blown scream of anguish. He had lost Naruto, his beloved godson.

"I shouldn't have taken that scroll, I shouldn't have left, I shouldn't , I shouldn't have…." His voice trailed off. No longer was any his composure left as he cried like a child who had lost everything.

* * *

Naruto's eyes opened slowly. He stood up and looked around taking notice of what seems to be never-ending white space that extended to who knows where. His eyes stopped on a figure. It was a woman with a fair complexion. Cerulean eyes that were bluer than even Naruto's Azure ones, silver hair flowing as if the being blown by a non-existent wind and her body comparable to the most beautiful woman of the elemental nations. She was wearing a pure white gown that gave of an aura of purity.

"I see you are already awake. Naruto Uzumaki of the elemental nations" Even her voice screamed of innocence.

"Where am I?" Naruto replied.

"You are pretty calm for your situation. Any other would be panicking already. I was sure your memories weren't affected by the travel"

"It can't get worse than this wouldn't it?"

"Now that's just asking for more" She showed a deadpan face.

"I guess you're right Miss….."

"You can call me anything; I don't really have a name. Not that I'd keep whatever you would call me in memory. I've already received more names than I could count" She answered.

"Shiro, guess I'll call you Shiro then" Naruto had named the girl base on her appearance.

"White huh? Sounds good to me, Kind of boyish but it's not that I really have a gender after all"

Now that tidbit of information surprised Naruto.

"I should have expected there was more to this situation than meets the eye. If you would, please explain me the situation I am in"

The woman clapped her hands "Gladly, I was getting bored of the conversation we were having"

Naruto shook his head in mock disappointment on the person's choice of words.

"You see, we are in the boundary of two dimensions. Parallel ones at that, and I am the gatekeeper that makes sure your passage is safe and does not disturb the balance of neither the dimension you left and the place you will be going to" She started.

Naruto raised his right hand as a show of respectful interruption "Will it be possible for me to cancel 'contract' that has sent me here? And can you also please elaborate why I am being sent out of the elemental nations?"

"Contract eh? Nice choice of word. That actually sums up your situation. You are under a contract of dimensional transfer. But no, the contract does not involve any way of you cancelling it or coming back to your original dimension" The being replied to him.

"So that was what the scroll was?"

"Yep! The scroll is actually a contract of dimension transfer. But as you know, something as great as that can't be done without any sacrifice or trade. The price had already been paid long before you were born so no worries. Uzushio sacrificed the lives of twelve persons for it to work" She answered enthusiastically as if she didn't just state that his predecessors had just committed murder.

Naruto was about to open his mouth for a question, but the figure beat him to it.

"Prisoners of war. The sacrifices weren't that innocent so I wouldn't think that badly of your ancestors. And before you ask. Yes, I can read you mind so you do not actually need to speak but you can. If only, to make the information flow smoother"

A tic mark to appear at his head due to the interruption.

"As I have already said, I am a dimensional gatekeeper. There won't be a barrier language since I can read memories and integrate it into mine. I am also neither a man nor a woman; I only appear in this form as people usually show less reluctance in cooperating when in the face of an weak and innocent looking person. But don't get too big on the head though, I am even stronger than the strongest your dimension can present. I can take on almost any form too. If our kind had a name we could be called Shape shifts" The being introduced itself with an innocent smile on its beautiful face.

"This means I wasn't the only one?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, but you're the first to transfer in your target destination. Anyway back on topic. The scroll was made during the warring eras by the best seal masters of Uzushio as a last line of desperate struggle to have at least a single survivor should there be a threat that your ancestors would be wiped out. I guess it is why they put it in a tower they named "Tower of Desperation". It was never used however; the attack on Uzushio was a great surprise. Normally, each generation had at least a batch of prospective person that would take up the role of using the scroll. Unfortunately, none of them made it to the tower as such it was left. The tower was destroyed and the scroll was trapped on the rubbles of the ruined building, later on Jiraiya of the Sannin was the one to find it. Whatever happened next, you already know"

Naruto took every detail; his face held no emotion but his heart was on turmoil. He could no longer go back after all. "Can you give me an idea of where I'll be sent" Naruto asked.

"I feel sorry for you" Shiro said with a sad face but that didn't last as it was replaced by a grin before she continued "Nahhh, just kidding. you shouldn't be so sad. Your situation isn't actually that worse"

The teen perked up with Shiro's words.

"The place where you will be transported into isn't that different from your own. In fact, you could almost consider it just a different timeline. Though it isn't, it's really just a parallel dimension where one action made a huge impact on the future. If it was the same dimension I could almost say that you would just be simply sent back to your ten year old self. Things are not just that simple unfortunately" Shiro sighed.

"What do you mean?" Naruto couldn't help but ask.

"Where you'll be sent, you were never the hero of Konoha. The third Hokage wasn't able to convince the public that you are the jailor and their guardian. In turn you were hated and that led to you lacking guidance and attention. You craved what you didn't have so you turned yourself into the art of pranking to receive attention. Even if it was just annoyance"

"Basically everything I wanted before I left?" He summarized.

The girl had said that she could read his memories so Naruto expected her to already know what he was talking about.

"Not quite simple. You were treated like how the other Jinchūriki were treated"

"Hated?"

"Loathed and isolated"

"Big deal?"

"You weren't able to make friends which means you can't act like you know any of your batch mates. You never knew Kakashi; Sarutobi was the only person who cared for you except for the Ramen sellers. Jiraiya wasn't able to adopt you since the civilian council had prevented it at all cost" The girl corrected.

"So just isolated? And I pranked people but this time they hate me? Sounds like a good place to me" Naruto felt his sadness slowly fade away and be replaced with growing excitement for his new location. "I guess I'll replace whoever is my double there and take his place eh?"

"Yes you will, he is basically you but with a different childhood. He will be ours though, his consciousness that is"

"Wait what?" Naruto jolted up with that new information.

"The scroll that sent you here required twelve sacrifices; ten of those for the transportation, two for the existence replacement. You will take the other 'You's place as a replacement since only one of you can exist. Clones, elemental or not; are you but not an other 'You' so they shouldn't be counted. Any human made you, in any way or experiment will also be not another you since they will have an individual existence, like a signature soul for they will be created in that dimension and not outside of it like you are. You see, parallel dimensions usually have peoples with counterparts; dead or alive. Those with counterparts must replace their counterpart to not upset the balance. The Naruto there has the same soul existence as you so you can't exist in the same time and place. This is why we will be taking him. What we will do to him, you will have no concern as you will not be affected" Shiro explained for him.

"My head hurts a little"

"Of course it would, Haha!. Just accept the situation; we wouldn't want paradoxes to intervene with the multiversal equilibrium"

Naruto decided to rid himself of the headache and simply decided to agree.

"Fine, what else should I know? I think the times almost up so I might as well get as much info as allowed" True to his words, his hands started vanishing just like before but way slower this time.

"Don't worry, you won't be sent there unless I allow you. So there are a few restrictions you must obey lest you will be the one in the place of the other you"

Naruto gulped not even remotely wanting to know what would happen if he disobeyed what she would tell.

"First and foremost, you can't come back to where you came from. So any attempt by using any method mostly relating to Fuinjutsu will be banned. The reason you are contained here for a while instead of instantly sending you to that place is because your existence on your past world is slowly being erased till nothing will be left meaning it will be as if you never existed. The other Naruto is also being slowly prepared for replacement. Once the preparation is ready, you will be allowed to transfer" Shiro started with the first rule, letting Naruto take the information into his head before continuing.

"Second is that you are not allowed to let anyone know about your past dimension as well as the existence of this place which includes me. Other than those two. You should also know that in time, you will forget about me and this place. Even if you write it, record it or even go as far as seal your memories, it won't work. Don't ask how, this is how it should be. If you ask when it will take place, it varies per person but usually takes a five to eight years to properly implement everything to place so the ripple in that dimension due to your entrance would be calmed"

"Anything else?" Naruto asked eagerly. The prospect of a Konoha where he wasn't patronized really made him excited. A place where he wasn't monitored by the Sannin so he could try to learn anything he wanted made him even more enthusiastic. This situation was a win-win for him.

"Eager one, aren't you? There's nothing else to tell. Close your eye and don't open them until after I touch your forehead" Shiro walked closer then touched his forehead. "Farewell, Naruto Uzumaki"

* * *

When Naruto opened his eyes, he found himself on an unfamiliar place. It looked like a worn out apartment and he was on what seemed to be a second hand bed.

'I guess the other me lived in a worn out apartment since Jiraiya wasn't able to adopt me. As long as I am not the center of attention and I can do what I want without anyone looking at me, which would be fine for me' he thought to himself. In reality, he was actually displeased with his counterpart with how unorganized and dirty the apartment was. He walked to the restroom and looked at the mirror. He noticed that his hair was cut off unlike himself before who liked to grow his hair longer much like his father. True to Shiro's words, he was about nine years of age based on his appearance.

"Yosh! I'm gonna make this place clean and shining by the end of the day" Thus, He pumped up his arm and started his work.

* * *

The next day was quite tedious for the nine year old kid. He had just realized that his closet contained nothing but orange jumpsuit that made him cringe to infinity. Sure he liked the color orange and yes, it was his favourite color. But he would never think of having only those and spare white tee's and black pants. It was an eyesore. He had also realized that his fridge was also full of ramen packs and no other food other than spoiled milk. How his counterpart lived with only ramen as his diet, he could never figure out.

These realizations lead to Naruto deciding that he must buy new stuffs in order to make his daily life less horrible. A future ninja without proper equipment and nutrition is bound to be a dead ninja.

It took Naruto only three clothe shop and two restaurants to learn the reason as to why his counterpart didn't have a good sense of fashion or diet. It was because of his status in the village. He was the pariah. No wonder he couldn't get anything decent no matter what it was.

Naruto then made his choice of going to the one place he was sure to find the proper equipment and treatment he needed. The place he was thinking about gave excellent quality goods but not without a higher amount of payment that regular stores. It was the Higurashi-Ninja Store. It was a ninja store so they were bound to know the difference between kunai and a scroll.

As Naruto entered through the door, he noticed that there were almost no differences between his previous dimension's memory of this place as well as the current one. The only difference being that the place had more stocks in equipment than he usually saw, probably due to the fact that the shop had become famous when the villagers learned that the village hero was said to buy at the shop.

Naruto looked through the clothing section and noticed that the prices were an exact replica of their counterpart in his previous dimension. This brought a smile on his smile for a minute as he remembered his memories of the place. It didn't take long for the smile to be replaced by a frown as he looked to his Gama-chan wallet. Clearly, he had more than enough saved money. This proved the fact that his counterpart was either used to being frugal or was used to buying other necessities. Regardless, this time he would make sure he would receive the proper treatment his body needs.

"The price tags not to your liking, eh kid?" A man's voice called out to him.

Naruto looked to the man and noticed that it was a tall dark haired man with a scar on his rightjaw. His muscles were clearly built for strength and not speed.

'Probably due to constant lifting of these equipment's' Naruto thought to himself before answering. "Not really, I was just wondering if you would let me buy or chase me out like most of them do. I don't actually remember that I pranked this place. So….." he left the words hanging.

"You may not remember whether this shop was a victim of your pranks but I do, It was two months ago. You decided to put long lasting glue on the entrance and dyed it specifically to match the flooring so it would go unnoticed. Of course it didn't work, a simple trick like that won't work on a ninja store. I'll give you credit though. I never figured out when you put them in the first place" The man stated.

"Hehe, I thought you wouldn't remember. I guess I should show myself out then" He said as he scratched the back of his head.

Naruto started walking to the exit but a hand that was placed on right shoulder stopped him dead on his tracks.

"Nonsense, you are a customer. And just as I had said. It was a harmless prank, it never really did any damage to the shop so I do not hold any sort of grudge against you. Besides, If a simple prank like that would go unnoticed in a ninja store, then it would only spell out incompetence for the store owner"

This brought a smile to Naruto's face as he faced the tall man.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and from now on. Consider me your loyal customer, a patron you could say" Naruto extended his hand in a gesture of shaking hands as a sign of respect.

The man shook his hand and smiled brightly "Kenzou Higurashi at your service, feel free to choose anything. I'll give you a discount this time as a reward for your future patronage, better yet; I'll even throw out a storage scroll so you could carry your items easier"

Naruto thanked the man for his kindness. After the exchange, the man had left Naruto to his own devices to let him have his choices but not before reminding Naruto that he wasn't allowed yet to buy any weapon with the exception of the practice items.

He picked up a few set of pants and tee's as well as a few shorts. He didn't forget to bring specific clothes for training too; those ones had a sturdier fabric as they needed to be more flexible and long lasting. He also picked up a few practice kunai, shuriken and target practice marks. He then brought the items to the counter to pay for them. There were a lot of the items so he brought them with a cart.

"I'm guessing you are filling up your closet with a new set of clothes huh? I don't really see you with any other clothing other than that eyesore you are wearing right now. So, what brought up the change?" The man told Naruto upon arriving at the counter.

Naruto could feel something was off but he couldn't pinpoint what it was so he shrugged it off as a hunch.

"Nothing, I've always tried to buy new clothes at the civilian shops but they always send me out without even letting me pick anything so I figured to give them a taste of their own medicine, through pranking. I've never tried to buy at ninja stores so I never knew they were more accommodating"

The man laughed out loudly for a bit before speaking "Haha ha! serves them right for not knowing the difference of a kunai and a scroll"

"Kunai and a scroll?" Naruto asked, his eyebrows raised as if to emphasize his curiosity of such a comparison.

Naruto knew that the man was comparing his situation to the items mentioned. Him being the scroll that was containing the beast inside his stomach, who was the kunai. He acted oblivious despite knowing the fact in order to cement his alibi of innocence about the topic.

Unfortunately, his act wasn't able to fool the man.

"You may fool them gaki, but not me. I'm a hundred per cent sure that you know just what I mean"

"How?" Naruto was dumbfounded. He didn't remember anything that would make the man learn of his 'newfound' knowledge.

"You acted too normally" The man said cryptically with a straight face.

"Please elaborate" It was too vague and Naruto needed answers.

"These past few years up to last week that I saw you. You were too brash and boisterous. A few days later, here you are. Calm as a lake. You also lied to me about not buying on ninja stores. Where else would you get ninja supplies such as smoke bombs and ninja wires? It's just that you were fond of the attention given to you due to your pranks that you neglect buying actual necessities for your own. If there is one thing I am sure of. It is that, you just recently realized what you are. Otherwise the changes wouldn't be abrupt but rather, it would be slow paced but consistent" Kenzou elaborated.

"I guess it was a dumb move then" Naruto replied.

"I wouldn't call it dumb, more along the lines of immature. Don't worry, the civilians won't notice it and the ninja's would actually like a break from your pranks. Everybody knew you were bound to figure out something, just not this fast. I won't ask how you came to realization. With how you are being treated by the population of Konoha, it's some inevitable. You can be at ease regarding me too, I won't judge you for what you hold, nor will I tell them about what I know" The man smiled at Naruto after ending his speech.

"Aren't I too young for this kind of conversation?" Naruto asked the man.

"Are you kidding me? You are an ninja academy student, you are literally being trained to kill. Add that to the fact that you are a Jinchūriki who is isolated due to being misunderstood. Isolation brings forth maturity kiddo. There is no doubt you understood all that I've said. Besides…" Kenzou looked at Naruto in the eye before continuing "Those eyes don't belong to a nine year old kid that simply does pranking to get the tiniest piece of attention given to him. They may not seem too matured but there is no denying that those are the eyes of someone that knows what he is and what wants, eyes that already accepted himself and will stride forth towards his goals with conviction"

The conversation stopped after the man's speech and the place grew silent afterwards, Naruto didn't know what to reply. He didn't think he was that easy to read so he took a mental note of raising his skills in hiding his emotions. Then again, the man was probably an experienced Shinobi and Naruto only had 15 years of living under his belt.

Kenzou then took all the items and packed them. He sealed them on a scroll so that Naruto could carry them easier.

Naruto bid the man farewell and left for his next stop, food.

He sat on one of the chairs of the Ichiraku ramen shop and called out for his order. Luckily there were no other customers who would bother him so he ate with peace and gusto. He didn't find the place nor the conversations to the old man Teuchi and his daughter Ayame strange or awkward as he was friends on the both of them on the parallel dimension where he came from. Apparently, the color orange wasn't the only thing him and his counterpart both liked. Their favourite food had also been the same, except for the fact he wasn't as addicted to ramen as his counterpart.

It didn't take too long for him to finish eating as he didn't eat too many. The Ichiraku family found it strange that he ate too little but didn't pursue the topic nevertheless.

After eating, he went straight to his home. It was useless to go to the market as only civilians sold fruits and vegetables as well as raw meat. No ninja had spare time to do menial tasks such as growing their own food which meant that he won't be able to buy anything nutritious for a while. He decided that he would save money to buy or at least rent his own house that had a spare space to grow his own goods. His father's mansion wasn't supposed to be given to him until he reached the rank of Jounin, so that also meant that he would not have access to the study room located there for a long time.

Buying a house was quite expensive for a civilian and to some extent a ninja. However, renting was not impossible; you just have to pick the right one that wasn't too extravagant in terms of aesthetic beauty. Not that Naruto needed that. In fact, he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible so a simple one would suffice.

His musings were stopped when he arrived at his worn down apartment. Apparently, his place was often targeted for looting and vandalism for a while now. He had noticed the faint color of paint in the outer walls of his place. They were probably remnants of the vandals that were there before. There were also missing things that should normally be expected inside his apartment which were present in the other residents but wasn't on his so they were probably stolen. It was a good thing that those attempts were stopped. The hidden anbu guards stationed around him were probably ordered to prevent further attempts to make his home a mess.

Naruto inserted the lock to his doorknob and entered his apartment. He then unsealed the contents of the scroll and put the items to where they should be. The clothes being on the cabinet and the practice equipment's on his storage room. He walked to the restroom which required him to pass to the door of the kitchen when he noticed some things on the table.

When he walked closer, he saw a note which he then read. "Figured you'd want a change of diet along with the wardrobe change- Kenzou"

His eyes widened and he opened fridge to confirm what he was thinking.

True to what he just read, His fridge was filled to the brim with different kinds of ingredients; milk, honey, vegetables, fruits, raw meat and even some neatly stacked tray of eggs.

His counterpart self would probably be emotional for this kindness shown to him, not him though as he was showered with kindness in his previous life. His respect for the man still rose up though. These foods were sure to last at least two months for sure as he could infuse the fridge with preservation seals previously taught to him by Jiraiya. Preservation seals were intermediate level but Jiraiya thought he should have learnt it earlier as it was a useful skill for a ninja.

He noticed that there was another note atop the tray of eggs and picked it up.

"You don't have to worry about repaying the products or thanking me, you deserve at least this much for holding the beast at bay and putting up with the behaviour of the populace-Kenzou" Naruto read.

Naruto looked at the window , a smile gracing his face as he watched the sun slowly set. "I'm liking this place even more and more"

* * *

(Outside the apartment a few blocks away)

Two masked figure stood and watched as Naruto look at a window, smiling.

"Taichou, are you sure it is alright to give the boy that much provision? What if he grows suspicious and ask Kenzou-san" the other masked individual inquired.

"You don't have to worry about that, I have already informed of Kenzou-san of the situation and he has stated that he will cooperate should Naruto need further assistance" the cat masked one answered.

"I see"

"He deserves much more than this ; I wish I could have helped him more"

"I know you do Taichou"

* * *

-Chapter End-

And...that sums up the first chapter. It's still the first chapter so I decided on not yet giving any action to it. Things are about to pick up in pace on the next chapter. The academy arc should last for a few chapters though so you shouldn't expect too much.

Anyway, your thoughts and opinion are to be appreciated so feel free to leave a review of what you think about this story. The second chapter should be up after a few days since I'm feeling motivated and the ideas keep popping in my head.

Peace out

-shunozuko18


	2. Chapter 2: Adjusting

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other Reference character I may use in here. The plot however, I do own.

* * *

AN: I apologize to those who expected an early upload, I was caught up with the life of being a college student. This chapter had been ready for a while now already but I was really busy so I forgot to upload it.

* * *

"Hey, that's mine"- speaking

'I wonder what I'll have for dinner?' - thoughts

 **Bold letters** means shouting, tailed beast talking, jutsu or **sfx**

* * *

This day had been Naruto's fourth day after the transport. The first day he had spent on general cleaning of the house, the second spent on changing his wardrobe and getting food supplies. The third day, which was yesterday; was spent on buying new furniture for his house as well as a little research about anything in general. He realized that his house needed a makeover and since he had spare cash and with enough food on his fridge he decided to go with the plan. Unfortunately, though his supplies needed for training and living were already secured; he no longer had any savings left.

This morning had been rather great in the Konoha. The weather was beautifully clear, neither to sunny nor too humid. The birds were chirping, singing their melodies, the people were busy with their own businesses; the children were playing with one another with glee. Naruto had always been fond of days like this.

During his previous life; he and Shikamaru would spend days like this lazing around training ground 3 when they had spare time. Training ground 3 was a rarely used training ground as there was a grassy hill there with a single tree which provided shade. The landscape was elevated and thus, not too practical for training it was rare to find anyone there; it was the perfect place for him and Shikamaru to nap until they grew bored of lazing around. Unfortunately for Naruto, he could not just simply walk to that training ground as it would be too suspicious for him to walk there when the said training ground was not a commonplace for a nine year old kid.

Naruto was taking his time relaxing on the kitchen with a ladle on his hand, humming a tune while stirring the stew he was cooking. This was when a loud knocking and a familiar voice was heard on his front door.

 **"Naruto!Open Up!"** The familiar voice yelled out again.

Naruto walked to the door to welcome the person, who was yelling quite rudely "Coming!" He shouted back as he was still far from the door.

When Naruto finally opened the door and saw the person, his mind suddenly went to panic.

'Crap, I knew I forgot about something major. I was too busy about correcting my current lifestyle that I forgot about the last thing I should have forgotten. How could a student ever forget about going to school?!' Naruto was already panicking inside. His past self may had liked lazing around but he was not a delinquent. He had never missed even a single day in class without a proper excuse.

"What the hell were you thinking making three absences in a row? Don't you know your grades are already on the verge of being blank space and here you are lazing around with no care in the world. Just what were you….." The man's rant was stopped when he looked around Naruto's apartment.

'Just the perfect opportunity for an excuse' Naruto thought.

Naruto scratched the back of his head as an act to reduce the tension, chuckling to further diffuse the man's growing annoyance "Hehe. Iruka-Sensei, the other day I thought I'd do some cleaning since my house was too much of a mess. The house was so messy so I took longer than I thought. I was gonna come to school today though. Since you're already here, why don't you accompany me and have a breakfast. I actually cooked more food than I could eat, I was thought of having it for lunch. But since you're already here…" He left the words hanging and walked to the kitchen to put the finishing touch on the stew.

Naruto readied two bowls for him and Iruka; who was now seated on one of his new chairs. The Chunnin instructor had been silent for a while now, not that Naruto minded it a bit. As long as Naruto got away with his absences, he was OK with the man keeping his opinions for himself.

What Naruto didn't know was the internal turmoil that was going on the head of Iruka.

The man's brain was on shock, trying to process the changes that Naruto he had seemingly undergone over the past few days. He had not only cleaned his apartment, changed his wardrobe and refurnished the said apartment but he had also gone a one-eighty degree change in attitude. The Naruto that Iruka had known was a boisterous knuckle head who had been equally fond of the color orange and ramen. Meanwhile, this Naruto acted very different from that one. This Naruto was reserved, calm, polite, and most importantly; this Naruto does not have a verbal tic*datebayo!. He even had a new haircut. Iruka felt that Naruto looked like somebody familiar with his new look, though he couldn't put his finger as to who he looked like.

Right now, Iruka felt like a total stranger around this new Naruto.

Iruka's train of thought was stopped when an exquisite aroma infiltrated his system. He shook his head out of his stupor and looked at the source of the delicious smelling aroma.

Looking in front of him, he immediately saw the source. It was the stew that Naruto had invited him into eating. He could see the outline of chicken meat as well as a few vegetables he could recognize in the stew.

'He even COOKs nutritious food instead of just boiling ramen!' Iruka thought.

"Iruka-sensei, it's rude to keep the food waiting you know"

'He even has, table manners now!'

Apparently, Naruto had already taken his seat on the opposite chair and removed the apron he was wearing when Iruka entered the household. Iruka looked around and noticed that he had already prepared the table as well as the food down to the last detail, silverwares included.

The Chunnin kept his silence, still not fully able to process the situation. He felt so awkward that he couldn't even trust his voice. So instead, he nodded to Naruto and started eating. Upon taking his first spoon, his eyes widened. The stew wasn't just good, it was great. This made Iruka feel even more like a stranger to Naruto.

Both of them finished the food in silence. Not one word was said during the meal due to the same reason. Both persons did not know what to speak of due to different reasons.

Iruka's reason was that he felt like a total stranger to Naruto due to his sudden change of behaviour while Naruto just didn't know which words to say. In his previous life; he wasn't that close to Iruka as the man had only been his instructor for his first two years in the academy. This time, Iruka would seem to be his counterpart's sensei for a longer time. And if based by the fact that Iruka home visited Naruto even though he was a "Jinchūriki", then this must mean that 'he' and Iruka had been quite acquainted and probably in good terms.

As Naruto excused himself from Iruka to clean the tables and clean the dishes. The Chunnin had finally mustered the courage to open a casual conversation.

"So, what brought the sudden change?" He started

'That was the same thing Kenzou asked last time, guess he must be just as awkward to me as I am to him' Naruto thought before replying "Puberty I guess" He was cleaning the dishes while he said this.

"You're nine" Iruka stated with a deadpan face.

"I guess I'm an early bloomer then?"

Naruto felt that the conversation wasn't going as smoother than it was supposed to be so he decided to be the one take the step to make the conversation more comfortable.

"It's still seven Iruka-sensei, and the class doesn't start till eight. Do you mind if I go to the school with you?" Naruto knew he wasn't the best in making conversations but figured that at least he tried.

"That would be fine, I guess?"

"Good! Then I'll just finish washing this and were good to go"

Silence ensued again after the brief exchange. Naruto was fast enough to change to his school clothing and bring his textbook as well as all his other academy items. He had already done the process in his previous life so he was familiar to the things he should be bringing.

The two walked in a moderate pace and arrived at the academy a few minutes later. During their walk, Naruto noticed that the populace of Konoha had been giving him strange looks as if they did not know how to respond to his sudden change. As they walked towards the classroom, Iruka could no longer take the awkwardness and decided to clear himself in front of Naruto.

"Look Naruto, whatever brought the change. I'm happy that you are finally deciding to take your life seriously. I know what that you're life isn't easy as most of the children as you are living alone, but skipping classes for pranking would do you no good either. You must do your best and take your lessons at school to heart. To be a proper ninja, you must have not only physical duress but also fortitude. This is why you are being trained in the academy before being sent to the field, to give you preparation for what is the worst that may come. I truly hope that from now on, you will try to put enough effort in your academy classes Naruto."

Naruto's face brightened up at the man's speech as he replied "I must have been a really naughty boy then Iruka-sensei. Don't worry, mistakes were made. I'm still nine after all, so I have all the time in the world to change those mistakes. That speech was great sensei; you were really a teacher straight to the heart"

Naruto's compliment surprised Iruka just as much as it delighted him, after all; it's not every day that Naruto Uzumaki complimented you. This was the first time that Naruto a direct compliment to Iruka since the day he had been his sensei three years ago during Naruto's first year in the academy. Iruka's awkwardness around Naruto receded for a bit and he tried to make a light joke.

"With the complete change proves the fact that you are finally growing up, Naruto. Who knows, one day your dream of being a Hokage may become a reality" Iruka stated.

"Hokage? That troublesome job? Nah, I think I'll pass. There are a whole lot of other things to do out there than stay inside an office and do paperwork. I'd rather tend my own greenhouse garden than do that job"

This made Iruka stop dead on his tracks in shock but he was quick to recover as he chastised Naruto "I'll have you know that being a Hokage isn't just simply about staying inside an office and doing paperwork, although I won't argue that it is most of the time. It is a respectable job, without the Hokage. A village will… … … ….."

And so Iruka went on with his ten minute lecture about what being a Hokage really was. Iruka didn't notice that Naruto had not been listening to him halfway through the lecture. During this time, Naruto thought about the previous day.

Just yesterday, before buying furniture for his house; Naruto had walked around the town to survey the population about their opinions about him. The results were as expected, he was considered as the same as the kyuubi; a monster. That didn't bother him nevertheless; he never had much care to people who wouldn't even bother to know him personally. His previous life, he was hardly considered as 'Naruto the kid', but rather, he was known as 'Naruto the hero'. This time around was no different than back there. These people considered him as 'Naruto the monster'.

He also found out that his counterpart had a dream of being a Hokage. Naruto figured out the truth behind that reasoning. His counterpart didn't actually want to be a Hokage for the position, he wanted the position so that he would be given attention and respect. Him however, didn't need that same attention and respect as he had loads of those in the past. What he needed was life, living life doing what you want and discovering new things. The fact that the face of the four Hokage's on the mountain was the first thing you would see upon exiting Naruto's apartment was probably another factor.

The study room in his previous life was massive and he hadn't even seen the best of it. He wanted to know more, to learn more. For that, he must grow stronger. As knowledge meant being painted as a target, anybody who has learned too much would surely catch the eye of powerful individuals. Knowledge is indispensable. Science, technology, astronomy, chakra manipulation are only a few examples of knowledge that can turn the tides of war or make a nation prosper. He had no time to sit around and do paperwork inside an office for years.

And thus, Naruto decided that he must train to be strong enough so that even a Kage would be no match for him. So that in the future, he could do what he want and nobody could intervene with his work. He would not be bound to Konoha. Knowledge existed everywhere and not just in this village! So why must he lock himself up in this place?

"…and that's why you should respect the position" Iruka had finally finished his rant.

Luckily, Naruto had noticed this and went with the flow.

"I guess I'm sorry for undermining the work of the Hokage then sensei, why don't we go to the room already. We have less than five minutes before class"

Iruka looked at his watch and nodded. The two walked straight to the room with moderate pace. Iruka was first to enter.

As Naruto entered through the doorway, he heard a set of loud gasps. He looked to the source and found his classmates staring at him with varying facial expressions, most of them being shocked . Naruto knew it was his sudden change of clothes that made them notice him, what he overlooked was his change of appearance too. Yesterday he had asked Kenzou for a barber who would trim his hair a bit. It wasn't necessarily a new hairstyle, more like a simple haircut that reduced his hair. It wasn't that they never saw Naruto with this haircut, he had to have a haircut every now and then after all; or else his hair would grow so long that it would make him look like a girl. It was just that his wardrobe change was accompanied his haircut that it emphasized its effects to his classmates.

Naruto looked around the classroom wondering where his seat was supposed to be. He hadn't thought that there were no nametags on the seats in this place. During his previous life, the academy was organized enough that they had made specific name tags that were put on the table of each student so that there would be little to no confusion upon the start of the school years.

When he was looking around, he noticed that Shikamaru had been subtly signalling him to take the seat on his right, it was probably his place. Naruto then walked to the seat. Just as he had seated himself, Iruka called out for the class to start. Getting over their shock, the class stood up and gave the compulsory greetings.

"So, what brought up the sudden change Naruto?" Shikamaru asked him just as they had finished greeting.

"That's actually the third time somebody asked me that same question in a few days, are you in some sort of conspiracy?"

"I don't think I need to be in a conspiracy to ask that obvious question. It would be stranger if I chalked it up as a common occurrence of somebody turning one-eighty degree in personality, especially somebody of your kind"

Naruto sighed, feeling too tired to explain his alibi once more "You were never the type to directly confront somebody to know something. You were always at the side-lines; watching and observing silently till you come up with the perfect conclusion which means that you can't come up with an explanation this time around, at least one that has little flaws"

Naruto's answer surprised Shikamaru.

A chuckle escaped Shikamaru's mouth just as he replied to Naruto's assessment of him "Another puzzle-piece added again huh. You were also never the observant one Naruto but rather, you were the weird one. I could never know what to expect between that brain of yours. You manage to surprise me every time I think I have you all figured out"

"Trust me; It's too troublesome to explain the reason. Besides, haven't you thought that it would be something simple? Like, what if I just grew up?"

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed with what Naruto's reply "I may know only little of you Naruto. And one of those is that you never have a simple ulterior motive. But if you don't want to say it, then who am I to pry for more information"

"Hey you two! The class has already started!" The voice of Iruka boomed and it stopped the two from conversing.

The whole class suddenly started laughing at the expense of the two. This time around, Naruto noticed some of them were just chuckling with mirth and with a strange expression in their faces as they covered their mouths, the ones with those expressions being a few of the the females of the room.

'Tsk. There's no doubting it, it's infatuation' Naruto figured. He wasn't surprised though, he had heard that the fourth Hokage which was his father also had his own share of admirers. And now that he himself had himself fixed, his genetics were playing their role on him.

Naruto apologized to Iruka for his ignorance and the put his focus on the current topic.

"Now let's get back to the topic. I'll just retrace a bit so that Naruto and Shikamaru can follow. Our topic today is about 'Soul Scripts'. Anybody who has an idea can raise their hands and I'll try to rectify any wrong conclusions you may have already thought are correct"

A few hands were raised, all of them being of those with ninja background in their family. Iruka then picked a blond girl.

"My father said that 'Soul Scripts' are in essence, a piece of our own soul. Although it has never been proven, it is believed to be a materialization of one of the qualities of our soul. They manifest with great diversity or variation. Some manifest in the form of an 'ability' and some in the form of physical augmentation or mutation, there are other types of manifestation but they are minority in number compared to the first two that I have stated"

As the girl was explaining, Naruto's head was whirling with a myriad of different thoughts.

'What! A Soul Script? We weren't taught of that on my previous life. There was no way that 'Soul Script' exists in my previous life, something major like that would surely be taught to academy students. This must mean that there are new things here that don't exist in my previous world. I have to be more careful and observant for other things that maybe not present in my previous world' The thought of new things that exist in this world surprised Naruto and at the same time, it excited him. 'This just means more for me to learn, who knows. I might even get one myself' he thought.

"Perfectly said, just as expected of somebody with a ninja clan background. You can sit down Ino. Now, if anybody has a question about what Ino just explained; you can raise your hand and we will move from that question to clarify any misunderstandings you may have gotten" Iruka said.

A random civilian boy raised his hand and asked a question.

"Sensei, if they are just simply granting abilities. Then doesn't that mean that they are simply variations of Kekkei Genkai? I mean, if you look at Hinata-san who has a Byakugan doujutsu; which is a type of Kekkei Genkai. Then it can be qualified as a 'Soul Imprint' as it has a physical manifestation as it makes their eyes be all-white and they grant Hinata-san the ability to see through things like x-ray vision"

Shino raised his hand just as the kid finished speaking and sat down, Iruka allowed the kid to speak. It seems the kid would like to answer the previous assumption of his classmate.

"In order to not cause confusion about Kekkei Genkai and 'Soul Imprints', I would like to review you about what a Kekkei Genkai is before explaining their differences. A Kekkei Genkai or also known as BloodlineLimit are abilities that can be passed down genetically within specific clans through blood and not just contract. The BloodlineLimits have records stating that they have existed just as long as we had been able to control chakra, thus predating the warring eras. It is proven that 'Soul Scripts' are not Kekkei Genkai due to multitude of reasons, the first and most prominent one is that; Kekkei Genkai cannot be obtained without having the genetic composition of an individual who has access to that particular kind of bloodline. Although there were rare cases that Kekkei Genkai's would mutate and form into either a more potent type or an inferior type, some have modified types but never a different one. This means that it is impossible to get a Kekkei Genkai if you have no ancestors without a bloodline. This is proven correct as no civilian without ninja background has Kekkei Genkai. However the case of 'Soul Imprints' are different as there are civilian without ninja background had been able to attain their 'Soul Imprints'. Furthermore, a Kekkei Genkai can only be activated and used if the individual who has it had training to mould chakra even in the simplest ways. A great example would be the Byakugan of the Hyuuga Clan, they are proven to be Kekkei Genkai as they are hereditary as well as they require the process of being capable of moulding chakra to activate. The Soul Imprints on the other hand, do not always have this requirement. There have been civilians with no prior chakra training that were capable of utilizing their own 'soul scripts'. Also, while bloodlines require chakra to be utilized; some Soul Scripts do not. I believe it would be best if sensei would give us an example for this"

"Those were very good representations of the difference between Soul Imprints and Bloodlines, Shino. Actually, as of now; We do not actually have a great understanding of what Soul Imprints are so you shouldn't be surprised if you don't find anything about it in the Konoha Library with your current access. The earliest record of their existence were during the warring era's. As of how we can identify whether somebody is using a Soul Imprint and not a Kekkei Genkai is simple. Watch and listen closely" Iruka stated.

Iruka closed his eyes after explaining. He was standing still with no apparent movement aside from his mouth that were opening and closing as if muttering something that could almost be passed off as whistling, it was too weak that it would surely be unheard had the whole class not been totally silent. The whole classroom watched closely for any change that might be happening. After about a minute of repeating what he was doing, Iruka opened his eyes. Just as he did, the whole class was awed with whatever that he did, many statements were made but one kids voice stood out above the others.

"Woah! Look at his eyes. They're glowing blue" Kiba Inuzuka said loudly.

True to the Inuzuka's statement, Iruka's eyes glowed like the blue of the sea.

"Sensei, are you ok!" the worried voice of some were heard echoing.

"I'm alright now, stop screaming because it's hurting my ears" Iruka replied

The whole room then stopped their uproar and once again, silence ensued as they waited patiently for their teachers explanation of the previous event.

"This is how a 'Soul Imprint' looks like…" Iruka started "Soul Imprints, when used; usually make a part of the user glow a certain color depending on the attribute that the manifestation is aligned into. My 'Soul Imprint' manifested as a form of tracking or sensory ability. A voice will resonate in the head of a Soul Imprint holder when they learn how to properly call upon their Soul Imprint, this voice will dictate the name of the Ability. This ability can only be called forth if you call upon it with its name, whether verbal or only in your thoughts; just as long the user means to use the ability"

"What's the name of your Soul Imprint Iruka-sensei?" The same loud voice of Kiba boomed.

Iruka scolded Kiba due to his loudness "I said no screaming Kiba! I didn't fully activate this ability so there are still drawbacks and restrictions. But to answer your question, my ability is called as 'Echolocation', True to its name; it allows me to echoes of sound waves that will bounce off of solid surfaces near them, the sound waves will bounce back to me and let me know what particular object that is by guessing it through its shape; Unlike the Byakugan that allows X-ray vision, mine gives me vision in a way that I will know the shape and location of the nearby objects around me up to a few kilometres at max, provided they are unobstructed since sound waves can only travel through vacuum and are severely crippled in solid objects"

"That's so cool sensei! Can you prove it by locating something you can't see inside this room!" Kiba seemed to be overexcited with the topic as he was enthusiastic while speaking.

Iruka grinned as he made an example "Akamaru is located under Kira's desk, it would seem that you commanded him to look for her undergarments"

Kiba's partner dog ran out of the girls desk and ran to hide in Kiba who dodged the said girls punch. Kiba's head grew a bump when he failed to being unable to evade the punch but didn't reply as he was guilty of the crime.

"Does this mean you were muttering 'echolocation' earlier to activate the ability before sending the sound-waves sensei?" This time, a random civilian was the one to ask the question. Iruka's eyes already went back to normal the exchange which meant he had deactivated the ability.

"That would be a no, 'echolocation' is what others people call my ability but there are a lot of different echolocation users. The signature name of my ability would be 'Dolphin's Echo' which is what I call upon in my name to activate it. Each user has a different name but there are similar abilities that can be categorized as the same group. My ability was probably activated due to my surname being Umino which means 'Dolphin'. We cherish our names greatly and as such, they are bound to our souls. This probably resonated within me and granted me the ability of a dolphin which is echolocation. Also, I told you that Soul Imprints have alignments. Alignments are places or elements that are closely related to your ability. This is not to be confused with chakra nature however" Iruka paused for a bit before continuing "Naruto, can you tell us about Chakra Natures?"

In reality, the five chakra natures were still untaught to them as it was a more advanced topic for students due to their knowledge on chakra nature being vaster compared to Soul Imprints. Iruka wasn't expecting Naruto to answer but rather, he was testing how the new Naruto would react to a question whose lesson wasn't even taught to the class yet.

It was safe to teach Soul Imprints at an early age as the chances of getting them were remotely low as well as they are usually manifesting at early age too, so it was needed to be taught to prepare them in case of it manifesting earlier. Chakra Nature on the other hand is another topic, they could only be trained in order to be attained by a person, and so it wasn't necessary to teach it to younger individuals.

What Iruka didn't expect was for Naruto stand up and answer the question with great ease.

"The chakra natures or more commonly known as the 'Five Basic Natures' are the five elemental chakra natures, which are the foundation of all elemental Ninjutsu. The five of them are as follows; Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth and Water. Each element is naturally weaker than and stronger than another. Fire is strong against Wind but weak against Water. Wind is strong against Lightning but weak against Fire. Lightning is strong against Earth but weak against Wind. Earth is strong against Water but weak against Lightning and last. Water is strong against Fire but weak against Earth" Naruto then sat down just as he notice that the whole class was awed by his knowledge. It wasn't every day that you see the dead last knucklehead Naruto Uzumaki answer a question still untaught by Iruka.

Iruka himself was impressed and applauded Naruto for his perfect answer. Naruto had curtly thanked the teacher for his compliment which further increased Iruka's respect for Naruto as he was showing modesty.

"Show Off!" Kiba shouted.

"Shut up Kiba or I'll punch your head again" it was the same girl who bonked his head earlier. Kiba squeaked out of fear and kept his silence.

Iruka decided to intervene and diffuse the situation "That was an unnecessary remark Kiba" He looked at the class and continued "Naruto's answer was straight up correct. The five chakra natures are Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth and Water; and as I have said. Soul Imprints are categorized into two kinds as you may recall that Ino stated earlier. The two are, Ability Manifestation and Physical Manifestation. Ability manifestations are those that only grant abilities to the user without any physical change barring the glowing part of the body when a user activates his ability. I belong in this category as I do not undergo physical change when using 'echolocation'. As I have said, we have different alignments for each ability. Mine, is everywhere that is underwater. My Soul Imprint was based on the echolocations of Dolphin's as such, my ability works best when submerged underwater. Due to this, if I am inside the area of my alignment which is underwater, my abilities effects can be doubled and even quadrupled under the right conditions. I will also have full access to it during that time"

"What about the other category sensei?" another random student asked.

"Physical Manifestations are Soul imprints that of course, change your physical appearance and either augment your other physical capabilities or grant you a new one. A great example would be Alphonse Elric, also known as 'The Living Armor' though we were never able to learn of its actual Soul Imprint name. His Soul Imprint allows him to transform his body into a living armor made of an unknown material. His ability grants him near impenetrable defence. It's a good thing that he isn't affiliated to any hidden village as he would be a force to be reckoned with should he be sent to war in case a need for one arises. Another example is the son of the third Hokage who is Asuma Sarutobi, he is one of the 'wind people' and the signature name of his imprint is 'Flight of the firebrand'. Firebrand is actually a bird that is native to fire country where we are now located. His ability manifests as wings that grow on foot giving him the ability to 'fly', but in actuality; he is actually just riding the 'wind'. This gave him the moniker 'Konoha's Wind Rider'" Iruka finished.

"These abilities are really great sensei, how do we know if there is a possibility that we would get one, and is it possible to get more than one?" Naruto asked. He was now really excited of the thought of getting one of these abilities.

"It is possible to get more than one ability; it may be uncommon but it's not too rare. Some even have as much as five but they will be another topic for another day. The question to knowing who can get a Soul Imprint is quite tricky. Most, if not all of us with Soul Imprints agree that we are chosen by 'Nature' to have a manifestation. The criteria were never given, whether a person is good or bad does not seem to affect the choice. What we have noticed though is that all of those with Soul Imprints have strong ties to where their abilities are derived from. I was fond of my name which gave me a dolphin's ability. Asuma-san was also a fireguardian and was known to have a great understanding of how the element of wind works. Whatever the criteria is, we do not and it is doubted to be ever revealed. The voice telling the name of the ability will also only be heard once and it will never return"

"I see, thanks for the answer sensei"

"It is my role as your teacher to teach you proper knowledge and remove any misunderstanding you have in any topic as long as you are in school. Now who else has a question?" Iruka asked the classroom.

The whole morning revolved around the same topic. Most of the questions being redundant or had already been answered indirectly but Naruto still listened to every bit of the topic. He had to, if he wanted to have an inkling of obtaining this so called 'Soul Imprint'.

By the end of the morning and as lunch had come. A few of his classmates who he assumed were infatuated with his new look asked him to eat lunch together only to be stopped and warned by their parents to stop meddling with Naruto. A lot of parents came to the academy upon learning that Naruto had returned to the academy to warn their kids against the 'monster kid'. They had noticed that Naruto had looked better and so he might woe the hearts of their innocent child, but he was still a 'monster' to the eye of the civilians so they didn't want their children to interact with him outside of school. The third Hokage's law prevented them from telling their kids directly to hate Naruto but it had never told them that they were forced to befriend the kid. Naruto didn't mind their opinions, he couldn't care less.

The ninja clan kids didn't get this kind of warning and so they weren't that wary around Naruto. This gave Naruto the opportunity to get close to a person he knew he would be happy to be in accompany of. He walked close to that person and started a conversation.

"Hey, Shikamaru. Wanna play shōgi? I have a board at home, I'll also treat you for lunch if you want" He grinned. Naruto had already planned ahead and brought the things that he knew the kid liked so that his trust would be gained easier.

"You play shōgi?" Shikamaru looked peculiarly at Naruto. He seemed sceptical about Naruto's choice of a game.

"Well of course, it's great a great practice for strategizing. How do you think that I was able to get away with all my pranks in the broad daylight? I even have the most conspicuous clothing in the whole Konoha! Do you think I got through with just luck? Of course not, i need to be always a step ahead of time so that I can escape my pursuers. Speaking of pursuers, Iruka-sensei had always been the one to catch me most of the time. Now that I know what to expect of him since he revealed his ability, I'll be able to find a way to counter that!"

"Troublesome. I guess since we already have no classes for the day, I might as well come with you. I'll be taking up that offer for lunch. But you have to wait for me, I'm telling Chouji to tell mom that I won't be home for lunch" Shikamaru walked to tell Chouji of his message leaving Naruto to his devices.

Naruto looked around and watched as the students went home, some on groups and some were with their parents who he had noticed were sneering at him. He replied them with an eye roll and he got the reaction he expected, they seethed in silent fury but could do nothing.

'That's pathetic, putting all your anger on a child who you believe is the incarnation of a very strong demon and at the same time, fearing that said demon with all your heart. I can understand those people who have lost their precious ones during the attack. But most of these sneering people did not even have anyone to lose during the incident; they just go with the flow. People like them with no sense of individuality and only follow the flow of world and act like they are entitled to that very flow disgust me. I won't die protecting these kinds of people, I'd rather die for protecting something I love than someone that hates my very existence' Naruto thought.

The voice of Shikamaru broke Naruto out of his thoughts.

"We can go now"

"That's nice, let's go"

* * *

(At Naruto's apartment)

"Hmm, not bad. I would have thought that you would take longer to clean up your apartment since you just had a change recently" Shikamaru commented. Clearly content with the way Naruto's apartment looked like now "So where's that free lunch you were talking about, I'm starving 'cause I ate little this breakfast" he continued.

"You're not that picky aren't you?" Naruto asked.

"So long as it's edible and not poisonous, it'll do"

"Then you can go to the kitchen. There's still some stew I left from breakfast. You can reheat it at the stove. I was about to cook later but since you're already starving as you say, then you can have that. You can come back after you eat, I'll do something before then. Oh, and you can take your time; I'd probably take a long time with what I'm about to do"

"Kay" Shikamaru then went to the kitchen and reheated the stew before eating. After a few minutes of break after eating, he walked back to the living room.

Upon returning to the living room, he found Naruto on the table; holding a brush and a scroll with complete concentration on his face. Shikamaru knew that what Naruto was doing was Fuinjutsu, but he wasn't very familiar with the art. What he knew was that it was an art that only few ninja in the village were capable of performing, all of which are ranked Chunnin and above. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed as he observed Naruto. Naruto looked to be in a trance though he was sure it was because of his concentration; his eyes moving fast and his hands moving gracefully; each stroke made with great precision and elegance that it almost looked as if he was dancing.

Shikamaru watched carefully with fascination, amazed at the event unfolding between his eyes. He didn't expect Naruto to be this skilled in an advanced art.

He couldn't remember when he had started watching Naruto but it couldn't have been less than 5 minutes since it started. He was too transfixed with what Naruto was doing to notice the time.

Suddenly, Naruto withdrew his hand and put the brush away. He started a series of handseals that Shikamaru couldn't identify. 'Too fast!' he thought. Naruto then finished with a clap and said **"Compress!"**

The writings on the scroll moved in an intricate manner and interlaced themselves with one another till they formed a single kanji of wind(風) in the center of the scroll. Naruto then performed another set of handseals and finished again with a clap, this time he said **"Multiply"**

True to his order, the kanji at the center of the scroll multiplied into a dozen and placed themselves in order on the scroll, dividing the scroll into twelve parts each with their own kanji in the middle. They were only divided though, not cut.|

"Pheww, that was tiring" Naruto wiped the sweats that formed on his head " Thanks for not disturbing me, I'm not yet that good at Fuinjutsu so I couldn't do shortcuts which made the process longer plus the fact that I had to incorporate a 'multiply' inscription which doubled the total time spent. Anyway, thanks again for not disturbing me. I took a total of twenty-right minutes to prepare the scroll, this one's a simple Seal which wouldn't have taken five minutes had I been better"

"You call that simple yet I didn't even have an idea of what you were doing. Your welcome about the not disturbing thing too, i was actually too transfixed to react. Anyway, what's that scroll?"

"You're not going to ask me about what I just did and how some nobody like me know something as complicated as that given my age and previous personality?"

"I was once curious about you about two years ago so I asked father about any affiliation you had parents or any relative, he said he didn't know of any since there are too many individuals in Konoha. You were capable of giving some of the Chunnin a run for their money since they couldn't catch you after you did you pranks so I figured you had ninja clan training, heck you even evaded anbu's every now and then but I was sure that they were taking it easy back then. I then asked about Uzumaki clan on my father, this time he answered me. He said they were an old clan who were famed for their red hair along with their long lives and superb skills in the art of Fuinjutsu which no other could compare to them, that's when I knew you weren't just a simple orphan. However, father said that they were wiped out and only a few survived. What I didn't expect, was for you to learn that art knowing you are the only Uzumaki left in Konoha" Shikamaru finished.

"You forgot the part where your father told you not to tell anybody ever about what you just learnt didn't you?" Naruto smirked, a knowing face written in his face just as Shikamaru noticed a half ram seal on Naruto's hand. Only now did Shikamaru also notice the wind that was blowing rather strong outside Naruto's window had been blowing for a while now, only stopping when Naruto dropped his hand.

"What was that?" Shikamaru was alarmed. Naruto's knowing look coupled with the fact that he disobeyed his father's orders on not telling anybody about what he learnt was making him fidgety as If he had just done a crime.

Naruto didn't answer, only furthering Shikamaru's anxiety as he picked up a scissor and cut the scroll delicately he had just made into twelve equal pieces. Naruto then put aside his Fuinjutsu equipment before finally talking to Shikamaru "I'm too early to make a silence seal so I improvised. I made a very simple 'wind breeze seal'. As the name suggests, it stores chakra and releases it as a simple wind breeze; one of them will only make a breeze for cooling. But a couple of them are enough to create a breeze that can distort sound making it hard for somebody outside to listen. The seal always uses minimal chakra that you wouldn't even notice it being used unless you're a Jounin level sensor using maximum concentration. That and the fact that the windows are closed will make it impossible for eavesdroppers outside to listen"

"Eavesdroppers?" Shikamaru tilted his head to emphasize his question. Naruto's living room had a window and he was currently facing backwards of it so only Shikamaru had access to the window in terms of sight.

"Three roofs away; red coloured, the one with two trees. Look at the leaves, there should be a mask peeking out. And before you ask; yes, it's an anbu. It's one of the few stationed to survey me"

Shikamaru's eyes widened as he subtly looked at where Naruto pointed at and realized that he was telling the truth. He was about to ask why Naruto had anbu stationed to watch him when Naruto spoke.

"You probably already know that any Konoha resident inside the village who is being watched by anbu is already tied to an S rank secret. So if I were you, I'd stop probing around and instead; let's play shōgi" Naruto had already set up the shōgi pieces and had started with the first step being the pawn from e2 to e4.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes "Naruto, I know you didn't just invite me here for a snack and shōgi. Why don't you get straight to the point, I hate being used when I don't even know for what purpose"

"Fine then, I'll get straight to the point" Naruto paused for a bit to raise the tension "I want to train with you so that I can be sure to have a competent teammate in the future when we become a ninja. Also, if we interact earlier which is now. We can build our trust and friendship earlier which would also mean increased quality of our teamwork in the later times should we become teammates"

"And what if we do not get to become teammates?"

"Nothing to worry about, we could still help each other outside of missions. Though not as good as when we would be teammates" Naruto looked at Shikamaru in the eye, a serious expression on his face. "Listen Shikamaru, I do not plan on being stagnant. I want to grow stronger, No; I **NEED** to become stronger! With that comes the need for competent people you can also trust. Something is looming in the horizons, hidden from everyone else. And I'm pretty sure it's not something you would want to be there"

"What do you mean?"

"Soul Imprints, The release of the Kyuubi, Uchiha Massacre, The Hunters Association, Mythical and mystical beasts coming out of hiding. Something is coming Shikamaru, something big. These events don't just simply happen out of nowhere. The powers that are given to us isn't something to be simply ignored as a simple gift from nature. We haven't done anything to deserve these gifts; I believe it was given to protect us from a coming threat, a threat that would require us to be as strong as possible. I won't wait for it to arrive in front of my face before I start to move"

Shikamaru looked perturbed by Naruto's words as he replied "Tsk, I should have known something was strange, my father has been working more than a Nara should have been. There have been an increased amount of ninja stationed inside the village too and the academy teachers are also taking their methods a step further, especially Iruka sensei. No wonder he was making us learn things like our life depended on it! To think that it would take you; the class 'dead last' to tell me the facts before I could figure it out…" Shikamaru stopped as he noticed Naruto's shaking form, giggling. He narrowed his eyes "What's funny?"

"That's the problem about you geniuses, you tend to overthink the simplest things. I was just kidding about the 'enemy on the horizon' part. I just wanted to see how you would react. Quite funny though, I've never seen you that serious before; But seriously, you have to stop overthinking things. Your father is probably working harder since your mother is pushing him, Of course there would be an increased amount of ninja stationed inside Konoha, our population is increasing meaning we need more to watch over it, and don't get me started on the academy teaching method. I've read the methods of teaching during the first and second Shinobi world wars, our methods today pale in comparison. I wouldn't think of it too much though, were at times of peace"

"That wasn't a funny joke Naruto! The fact that it makes sense would make any other student believe it too"

"I doubt that, anyway you really should stop overthinking some things Shikamaru. Some things just exist because they do"

"That doesn't make any sense at all"

"And why do you think that everything has to make sense?"

"Troublesome"

They sat on a comfortable silence after that. Shikamaru grew bored and asked if Naruto had any books to read, he lost interest in board games due to the earlier events. Shikamaru did hate playing shogi or shōgi when his head wasn't fully clear, the fact that naruto was the one to fool him made things worse for his him. Naruto gave him a book entitled "The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi" telling him it was his favourite book. He accepted it without any fuss and started reading. After a few minutes of reading, Shikamaru asked if Naruto had a more peaceful room since he could hear a bit of the noise outside, Naruto had guided him to his study room which had been previously an empty room since his counterpart didn't have that many items. It was a simple room containing two bookshelves with a few books, a chair, a table as well as his other Fuinjutsu equipment. Shikamaru noticed a three person sofa and decided to sit there to continue reading. Naruto left him at that and closed the door for better privacy.

Around five in the afternoon, He started to prepare for his dinner when a knock on the door was heard. He didn't bother to remove his apron as he walked to the door. Naruto checked up on his study room to observe what Shikamaru was doing and noticed Shikamaru was engrossed on his book he left him there. Upon opening the front door, he saw a dark man that had his hair tied up into a spiky ponytail, dark eyes as well as a goatee. His ears were also pierced. He was wearing a meshed shirt underneath his flak jacket, a deer skin coat over that and hand guards. He had two scars on the right side of his face which were probably his most noticeable feature.

"Naruto Uzumaki residence, may I help you Jonin-san" Naruto greeted with a bow of respect to the high ranked ninja, Naruto had always respected the higher ranked ninja's in his previous life. The fact that they survived to reach a higher rank is a testament to their skills and wisdom.

The man raised an eyebrow "I didn't expect that you were a kid with manners, considering what the neighbours were telling me when I asked for your place. Shikaku Nara; Shikamaru's dad, you don't have to be so formal. I heard from Chouji that Shikamaru stayed here for lunch. This is actually the first time Shikamaru asked to stay at another person's place other than Chouji's. I got curious so I decided to visit; Mind if I come in?"

"Please do. I didn't expect another visitor so if you would. Please wait at the living room. As you can I see, I am currently wearing an apron since I was cooking something. Shikamaru is at the study room, I can guide you there if you want"

"Ah, there's no need to call for Shikamaru. I'm not in a rush so you can finish what you were doing first"

"I'll be on my way then Nara-san, please make yourself at home"

It took about ten minutes to put the ingredients for the food. Naruto left them for the stove to cook them after that as he invited Shikaku for a shōgi match. Just like his son, this surprised him but accepted nonetheless. Three losses and one draw later; Shikamaru opened the door of the study room and was surprised at what he saw. Naruto and Shikaku were playing shōgi with Naruto on the winning side.

"Dad?" Shikamaru called.

"Shikamaru, I didn't notice you were out. You see I was engrossed on playing shōgi that I forgot why I went here in the first place" Shikaku looked at Naruto "Not bad, it only took you two losses and a draw to start noticing my strategy, this one's looking good for you"

"I'm sure you are just taking it easier this time though, probably to console for my losses Shikaku-san" Naruto smiled as he replied. They continued the game while conversing

Shikaku smiled for his caught act "Don't be like that." he then turned to Shikamaru "Why didn't you tell me you had a friend who was good at shōgi, he's actually quite skilled. Not quite good enough for me but I'm sure you'd have a hard time against him"

"You don't have to go that far to console me for my losses Shikaku-san" Naruto moved a piece and secured his victory, not that much pleased since Shikaku had purposely lost, only in a subtle way, but Naruto had already seen through it. It was no question that Naruto was better than Shikamaru this time since he had a few years of experience in shōgi due to Shikamaru's counterpart. Naruto didn't doubt it that Shikamaru would catch up to him in this game though in a few months, the kid was a genius in his own right and shōgi was in his domain of skills.

"Why don't you stay for dinner then Shikaku-san, Shikamaru? My treat since you let me win for once"

"I'm afraid well have to pass on that Naruto; I didn't notice that it was night already. Mom's probably worried sick. Besides, don't you have to worry about your own supplies? You're an orphan so it would be hard for you if you don't properly ration your supplies"

"You don't need to worry about that, these are veggies and meat so they're bound to go bad if I don't cook them. Besides, I rarely get visitors other than Iruka-sensei so this is a good change of pace. But since your mother is worried about you, I guess I'll just save them for tomorrow" It was half a lie however; his preservation seals were good enough to keep the items from perishing earlier.

Shikaku's eyes dropped a bit at Naruto's admission, he had known that the kid was isolated due to his predicament but still found it sad; he was a father after all and wouldn't want Shikamaru to experience the same things the kid had gone through. Naruto himself wasn't that affected about the isolation and was actually pleased a bit, Shikaku thought of it wrong though thinking that Naruto got used to the fact of being isolated.

"Actually, your mother is currently on Inoichi's home right now. Ino's mother Noriko had a miscarriage so Yoshino went there to console her. She won't be back till tomorrow so I believe we can take up Naruto's offer" Shikaku wanted to at least give Naruto a bit of company if only for a night, the kid had enough troubles from the villagers so he wanted to give him at least this much.

Naruto did notice that Shikaku judgement had been greatly affected due to his predicament. Not that Naruto minded it even for a little bit, he was actually pleased with the thought of being in good terms with a high ranking ninja. Back in his previous life, Shikaku was revered to be a great ninja. Commander of the Jounin forces of Konoha and its greatest strategist in almost any field may it be combat or political.

The dinner went as Naruto expected it, it wasn't too stimulating but neither was it too boring. Shikaku would ask about Naruto and Shikamaru's interactions in the academy as well as Naruto's activities outside of school. After dinner, Shikamaru and Naruto went for a few shōgi matches as suggested by Shikaku. True to his previous statement, Shikamaru did have a hard time battling Naruto; the record being 3 to 1 with Naruto being the leading scorer, their matches being shorter than him and Shikaku's as the kid was less than experienced than his father. Shikaku and Shikamaru excused themselves after the final match as they went home, it had already been eight-twenty pm by then. Naruto didn't have much to do and so he decided to replace the 'Wind breeze' seals he put outside his apartment with the new batch he had made earlier.

The new batch had been of better quality due to his aptitude and progressing skills. Naruto would dare say that the new batch were at least 20% more efficient than the other.

As Naruto went to his bedroom, he pondered about the few things he discovered about this world.

The gatekeeper had told him that this world was only supposed to be a copy of his previous one with the only difference being him, ostracized and not heralded. The statement didn't hold true however, he had researched on the Konoha library for a few hours yesterday and found a lot of differences in his previous dimension than this. The most prominent being the 'Soul Imprint' that was taught in their class earlier; another one was the 'Hunters Association' which was an organization of individuals with great skills and abilities on almost all fields; gourmet, assassination, treasure hunting and even fashion. He had first thought that it was a hidden village with a different name but he found out his deduction was wrong when he learnt that they had bases all around the elemental nations and were not affiliated with any village at all. They didn't pose a threat as they do not accept assassination of village related officials on ninjas unless they were missing-nin. Apparently, the association was led by a man named Netero who strong enough to rival any Kage and was as old as the first Hokage himself if not older.

Naruto had also found out that there were mythical and mystical beasts roaming around the nations; Griffin's, Dragons and even Living Shadows, though these three were of the rarest ones around, the fact that their existence is well known and nothing that would surprise anyone if told was something that bothered Naruto. Back in his dimension, these beings weren't even an existence to begin with. Jutsu's were based on them due to their imposing images to terrify enemies. Though Naruto did think that it was strange for his previous world to have dragons as basis for stronger jutsu's when they were practically non-existent, he had then come to the conclusion that they were only extinct there but was able to survive here. Still, this proved the fact that the gatekeeper had either lied to him on purpose or had some sort of mistake. Not that it mattered now; he was starting to enjoy this world more than his previous. Who knows, there was probably a non-grotesque way of reviving his deceased parents without any sacrifices here. He would totally look up to that, who doesn't want to meet up their parents after all?

Naruto's train of thought was stopped when he felt a sudden tug pulling him into consciousness, he didn't find anything wrong with it so he just let darkness consume him.

* * *

When Naruto opened his eyes, he found himself in a familiar place with a familiar `person?'.

"We meet again Naruto Uzumaki"

"Shiro? Why am I here, I don't think I broke any of the rules you put up" Naruto's heart was starting to beat up faster. The being in front of him had already proclaimed that it was stronger than any other his dimension could provide. If he had transgressed any limit, he had no way of defending himself when he himself had not eve attained the role of a Genin.

"Relax, I'm not here to punish you. Rather, I'm here to inform you about something you will need to know"

"It's about me being put in a wrong dimension right?"

"Precisely, smart as ever. It's a good thing that you had found your new dimension to your liking; it is your final placement after all. The mistake was not on my part, it was an unexpected predicament that could not be avoided considering who you are"

Naruto held a questioning look waiting for the being to further explain the situation.

"I have already taken into account the other being sealed inside of you in the calculation thus assuring that there would be no problem to your transport, I even included the other two tiny soul fragments that were there to begin with. What I did not expect was that there was another fragment; no…. it wasn't a fragment but rather, an essence of a fragment. The essence of a fragment of your previous person before you had entered samsara. I was not able to take into the equation, the fact that your soul was already on a contract"

"A contract?" Naruto had no idea what that other two tiny fragments were neither did he have an idea of the other essence of a fragment but he had already figured out that since Shiro didn't emphasize on those points as such it was knowledge that he was supposed to find out by himself. Remembering Shiro could read his mind, he was satisfied when Shiro smiled as she continued.

"Smart child you are, the knowledge of the soul fragments will not be taken with you when you go back to your assigned dimension; it is something you must find out about yourself. Now…..About the contract, your soul was actually in a contract of "Eternal Rivalry", another soul who is your nemesis would be born on the same era as yours and you would be doomed to battle him on each cycle, you will later be born on as a new person continuing the cycle till the day you call upon your ancient's consciousness and join forces to battle a certain rabbit"

"I see, so my soul was bound to that dimension and when you tried to transfer me. The contract that bound me resisted your own force thus leading me to another dimension that looked similar to what you were supposed to put me to but only with a few add-ons such as mythical beasts, soul imprints and other stuffs?" He summarized.

"Precisely, This is actually the only reason I personally met you today. The reason that the new dimension you were sent through was similar to where you were supposed to go to and not a random one is because my power is greater than the one that had made the contract beforehand. It is also the reason that I was not readily able to notice and feel the presence of the contract as it was not of my making"

"So how old was the contract? Not that I'll remember it when I get back right?"

"Each gatekeeper for a dimensional door gets replaced every three hundred years for reasons I am not allowed to tell you of, the contract was made around 5 to 6 cycles ago based on my observation. Each cycle being 300 'elemental nation' years for your planet"

"I see, so the only thing I will remember here is that I was sent here due to the backlash of another contract but not how old the contract was nor what the contract was. I will also forget about the soul fragments and essence stuff right?" A ripple behind Naruto which went unnoticed by him.

"On point, It is my responsibility to at least inform you of the reason lest you might have spent your whole life dedicated to find out what happened for you to be sent to that dimension, now step back as I have another individual to accommodate. If you would, please close your eyes like you did last time and I will touch your forehead to send you back"

Naruto stepped back a bit but waved his hand in front of him "Wait, I'll just greet this other guy here then. Seems rude to just leave like that" In reality Naruto had turned his head after being informed of the newcomer and got curious due to his strange attire and appearance. His face seemed foreign to Naruto and had a short unruly dark-blond hair not much like Naruto's bright-blond andhad a black eyepatch on his right eye. The man was wearing a metallic plate armor accompanied with a red cape on his back; he had a huge physique clearly built for a warrior. Naruto also noticed a few arcs of what looked to be electricity or lightning protruding from the guy randomly. He and his attire looked worse for wear as if he was just taking part on a war, the man looked around and noticed both Naruto and Shiro standing, he was sweating and panting greatly as he stood on a bowing fashion, his hands supported by his kneecaps. "I must return before it ends" the man stated.

The language he was saying was foreign to Naruto's ears but he could clearly understand it in his head, he could also feel that he would have no trouble speaking the foreign language. Naruto looked at Shiro as if to question her and was answered without opening his mouth.

"There is never a language barrier here, Naruto. I believe I have already told you that before" Shiro said.

Naruto then walked a step towards the man and extended his hand as a sign of greeting. "Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you in this dimensional space sir"

The man looked at Naruto who was in his twelve year old form. He stood straight up as he caught his breath from panting and shook Naruto's hand, he had to lower his body a bit as he was a lot taller than Naruto. " **Thor** , Odin's son" The now named Thor then turned to Shiro and spoke as if in haste "I believe you are the Watcher of this place, as such I must ask that you send me back to where I was before. A war that would decide the fate of our universe is taking place there. A tyrant named **Thanos** is on his way to create destruction, I must return in haste"

"I see…..your realm you are from itself is actually very far from here but since you are conscious and there is still residue of the warp gate I can send you immediately then. Since you have only entered here through accident, I suppose that I can expect you to speak nothing of this place to anyone. Please close your eyes, you will feel a touch on your forehead and until then you must not open your eyes"

"I shall" Thor replied as he closed his eyes. Shiro proceeded to touch his forehead. Upon touching her finger to Thor's forehead, the man glowed white and disappeared in a flash of white.

"Wait! So the universe is in danger? Is that why we have these new powers in this dimension, to protect it from that Thanos guy?" He was alarmed with the news that the other man had brought.

"Not to worry about that guy, our universes are far from each other. Too far that any action he would do would not affect us in the slightest; that tyrant is also way too overrated. Anyway this knowledge will also not be taken with you. Your planet is not yet ready to dabble with cosmic events. That guy was sent here due to the combination of a lot of variables mostly due to a powerful stone, I shall be informing all nearby gatekeepers to strengthen the barriers so there will no longer be another anomaly without a proper contract. I will be sending you back now, close your eyes" Shiro seemed calm as ever as he proceeded to send Naruto back to the elemental nations.

* * *

-Chapter End-

Finally its out. Some of you are probably upset with the fact that there is no action on this chapter, Don't worry guys. There's gonna be some action next chap as Genin-team selection is up. I'm not gonna put a poll for the teams though since I already decided them.

And also about Thor's appearance, you don't have to worry since he will not be interfering nor will he be coming back. You can consider the last part of the chapter as an OMAKE if you want but its not actually funny so i didn't put the omake sign. The actual reason that i put him in this chapter is due to my anticipation of the incoming Avengers;Infinity War. As this is not an actual crossover, this means that naruto will not have any further interactions with other Marvel characters.

Also, you probably had noticed the 'Living Armor' reference character and to finally confirm what you are thinking, yes it is him from FMA series(kinda redundant since it was painfully obvious). But as I said, this is not a crossover so they are as of right now, a person who was born in this NarutoVerse.

Tell me of your thoughts guys,

Peace out

-shunozuko18


	3. Chapter 3: Starting Line

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other reference I may use in this fanfiction.

* * *

A/N: Nothing too big to miss out here, but I'd still appreciate it if you do read it.

I already wrote this in chapter 1 but just in case for those who have not read it or blitzed through that part : *The age of the characters are 3 years higher in cannon events, as such- Kakashi became Chunnin at 9(6 in cannon) and Jounin in 14(12 in cannon). Academy still starts at 6years of age but now ends in 15(12 in cannon). This is so that we(I) don't need to imagine 12 year old prepubescent kids making love which incredibly grosses me out. 15 sounds better for me though. Still, I won't promise any smut. (And by the way, I left the Uchiha massacre at 8)

Another thing is about the currencies. Unlike other authors, I'm not really keen in comparing Naruto currencies to ours as I find it hard to visualize it. You see there will be multiple currency types in this fanfic which you'll find out later why. Of course (ryo) will still be the international money for all the major and minor Nin-villages but there are a few others where it won't be. The thing is, the value of Ryo varies per village so you might find fluctuations in this particular topic. You don't have to make it harder for yourselves though, not like this will be a Business type Naruto fanfic.

I'll also be reminding you guys that I'm not that good with describing outfits and appearance so please don't be so hard on me regarding this.

And now here we are with the 3rd installation of 'Stronger!', the action scenes are finally coming. As the protagonist is still on his early stages, please don't expect super-duper-ultra-mega-hyper-extreme fight scenes (yet). He's still in the academy after all.

* * *

"Hey, that's mine"- speaking

 _'I wonder what I'll have for dinner.'_ \- Thoughts

 **Bold letters** means shouting, tailed beast talking or jutsu (or sfx)

* * *

Chapter 3

A blur shot past the trees of training ground six. Just as the blur jumped from another branch, a creeping shadow followed not a moment later. Three kunai's were sent on his way before he could step to the next branch. Being airborne, there was little that he could do to avoid the projectiles. A smirk found its way on the face of the attacker before it was replaced with a scowl as the target was replaced by a log.

"You won't get me again with that strategy Shikamaru! You gotta step up your game if you want to catch me." The blur shouted to the source of the creeping shadow. With a sudden burst of speed, the individual sped fast into the nearby foliage and disappeared with only a few fallen leaves as a trace.

 _'Tsk, he's way faster than he was without the training weights. I didn't expect this much increase in speed, I should probably stay back and rethink my strategies'_ Shikamaru thought. Shikamaru looked around and tried to pinpoint the location of the target. The training ground was eerily silent with only the rustling of the leaves from the wind as a sign of movement but Shikamaru knew what that Naruto was nearby; he was the type to lurk near his targets, letting them go off guard before delivering the 'killing' blow, a true ninja straight to the heart. Not that he actually killed anybody 'yet', but the prospect of it was there.

Naruto was the worst type of enemy against somebody like him. Naruto was capable of hiding information in more ways than one, he was capable of setting up traps that set Shikamaru's plans on haywire, He could easily adjust his strategies in the middle of the battlefield but most importantly; Naruto was unpredictable. You would think that he was unpredictable due to his strategies but no! It was Fuinjutsu that made him unpredictable! Fuinjutsu gave him offense, Fuinjutsu provided him with defence, Fuinjutsu proved to be deadly as traps, the uses of Fuinjutsu was near limitless. Fuinjutsu was one but many, you never know what to expect when he took out a tag. Fuinjutsu was a variable that gave the same meaning as unknown to the enemy, and the unknown was any ninja's worst fear. Shikamaru knew he was lucky that Naruto was still far away from being a Seal Master, otherwise… He could only imagine the trouble Naruto would bring to the world when he did become one.

The versatility of Fuinjutsu even made Shikamaru ask Naruto to help him learn the art. Needless to say, the Uzumaki were truly blessed to have a natural connection to this advanced art. What Naruto only took months to learn, he took years. It was as if Fuinjutsu itself hampered the learning of those who are not Uzumaki.

It had been almost six years since he had befriended the blond. Since then, their friendship had only become stronger as time went by. A few days after their first meeting in his house, Naruto had asked him for a one-on-one sparring to improve their combat skills. Shikamaru had outright turn down the offer telling him it was 'troublesome'. Unfortunately for Shikamaru, Naruto wouldn't take no for an answer and warned Shikamaru of something that might happen to him should he chose not to change his mind. Shikamaru thought it was a bluff….that was until he discovered that Naruto's first move involved informing Shikamaru's mother about his unethical habits at school. As any mother would do to their tardy son, she scolded him and gave a lecture that would make any kid want to pass out of boredom. This was when Shikamaru decided that declining the blond was more trouble than its worth.

It didn't take long for Shikamaru to get used to Naruto asking for spars which they would do a few times a week, a few times it would be him asking the blond for it. His father discovered this only a few months after he noticed Shikamaru spent more time with Naruto than Chouji and asked him for the reason. He had initially thought that his father would scold him as their ties with the Akimichi clan ran deeper than with Naruto. What he didn't expect was for his father was to pat his back and congratulate him for finally getting motivated to train without being pushed. Chouji had later on grown jealous of the time he spent with Naruto which lead to Chouji being invited to their meetings. Their meetings then went without a hitch as was before. Chouji was a kind kid after all, that is unless you call him anything that meant being bigger than normal sized.

Naruto's closet and attitude change brought him even more attention than ever. He had accumulated a number of girls infatuated to him and even received a monthly supply of love letters, not that the concept was new to him. He had received more than quadruple of this in his previous life. It took almost a year before the letters stopped (well, most of it) being sent courtesy of their ill-mannered civilian parents who warned their kids not to get acquainted with Naruto as he was 'dangerous'. Some were reluctant to let go of their infatuation with 'the tanned blue eyed blond haired handsome hunk' so he was left a few of their number but not enough to trouble him.

The most prominent individual whose opinion of Naruto changed was Sasuke. Previously, the kid was bothered with Naruto's incessant request for a battle. The blond would always ask him for spars to prove that he was stronger than Sasuke and was more worthy of sakura. After Naruto's change, he had been delighted to that fact. His irritation to Naruto's request for combat spar was replaced with annoyance due to Naruto's 'cowardice'. The dark haired teen had really wanted to prove himself stronger than Naruto as he noticed his increasing skill with combat when he battled their other classmates during matches but was robbed the chance as Naruto would always forfeit when they were matched against each other. The proctors were mildly annoyed at first and threatened to fail him Naruto's decision wouldn't change regardless, as such; they had stopped putting the two against each other. Naruto knew that Sasuke was the 'more liked' one within the populace. And the moment news of him gets out that he beat up the Uchiha, the populace would be even more annoyed with him and probably attempt something to hamper his growth.

As Naruto ceased pranking and 'changed' his attitude, he had gained the trust of a few civilians who had realized that he was a nice kid. He was even able to buy supplies at the market and became a patron of a particular fruit and vegetable stall. The man had an ex-kunoichi as a wife who had persuaded him to treat Naruto indifferently unlike the others civilians. Those who had given Naruto proper respect and attention were then given nasty remarks by the populace but Naruto's continual confirmation of his innocence made them firm to his decision. The particular stall who supported Naruto received a backlash in business due to his 'haters' but Naruto's new supporters were on the rescue.

As Shikamaru and Naruto trained and at times, with Chouji; they developed better skills in combat as both of them excelled at strategy. Shikamaru excelled at advance tilt proof strategies that were almost impossible to get away from when he had the time to study the situation while Naruto excelled at practical or on-the-go strategies. Naruto's capability to create strategies with the ever changing situations greatly complemented Shikamaru's situation strategy which made them grow faster as each needed to overcome the other person's strategy. They would discuss their opinions of the areas to be improved after each match which would greatly confused Chouji especially when they went in depth with the thing. Chouji was a direct fighter and didn't rely much on strategy after all.

Shikamaru continued to look around the field for signs of movement but found too many to distinguish which were of Naruto's. He knew this was the work of Naruto. The blond liked to toy with Shikamaru's mind by making him think there were more variables than there actually was. The rustling of multiple leaves were probably his doing after all, it wasn't strange; what with his 'wind breeze' seal and all those other mumbo jumbo seals.

 _'There!'_ Two kunais were sent to his way and he tilted his body as little as possible just as he made the handseals for the Kage Mane no Jutsu. His shadow stretched towards the source of kunai.

Before his shadow had reached its intended target, his eyes widened as he felt a presence on his back and a voice accompanied by it.

"A strategist must always consider all sides of the field before making his move Shikamaru"

The look of surprise was replaced with a smirk of knowing as he replied to the voice. "Do you really think I would forget the basics Naruto? Don't you think it's too rash of you to speak before actually 'defeating' your target" Shikamaru didn't just send his shadow forth towards the movement in front but he had also sent another one to his back when he felt another movement just a second after he sent his shadow forward. The branch he was standing on was wide enough to accommodate two persons. He felt his shadow connect with the presence on his back just before he withdrew the one in front to conserve chakra and turned backwards to face what he had caught with it.

He immediately regretted withdrawing his other shadow when he turned backwards and saw a log with the same height as Naruto; a scroll containing a single kanji of 'Voice' stuck on its 'upper portion'. He instantly whipped his body back but was too late to notice two kunai's drawing close to him. He felt surprised when he saw the kunai's whip past him and thought that Naruto miscalculated the throw but his hope was instantly crushed as he felt the ninja wire attached to the two kunai's start to wrap him as they circled him and wrapped his upper body preventing him from moving. One of the kunai ended up imbedding itself on his left shoulder and hurting him. This coupled with his chakra running low made him lose control and fall off the branch. A blur shot pass and caught him before he could fall.

"Dang, what's with you falling with a simple cut Shikamaru. I thought you already mastered the tree climbing technique?" Naruto scolded him.

Shikamaru looked a bit annoyed at Naruto's words "I'm very much sure I already mastered it Naruto, but unlike you; not everyone has huge chakra pool at a young age. I've already used Kage Mane a few times plus we were also using chakra to stick to the trees for a while now. I was bound to get exhausted you know"

"Well…."Naruto scratched his forehead "I'm sorry. You're capacity was bigger than before and you were able to hold it longer for a while now that I forgot you had limited chakra pool. Sorry for the kunai too, did they hurt?" Naruto stated as he removed the wrappings binding Shikamaru and dislodged the kunai on his shoulder; it wasn't an alarming cut though. Just a minor wound.

"Only you would forget about a kid having limited chakra pool Naruto, only you" Shikamaru sighed as he was freed from the binding. He performed a series of handseals and spread his palms open, glowing a faint green. The dark haired teen guided his open palms to his wounds. The wounds started to mend themselves with the presence of the healing chakra; it took a whole minute for the wound to be fully healed, he deactivated the jutsu just after the process was completed.

"Healing jutsu's are really cool, wish I had that too. Though I don't think I'd need it with my 'friend' inside helping me. Still, the training kunais were supposed to be dulled and made so that they would only pierce wood and not flesh. Kenji-san said they used Fuinjutsu to bind it so that it would only deal 'blunt' damage rather than piercing. To think that it would cut you up, I'm really sorry you had to use what little chakra you had left."

The truth of his being a Jinchūriki was discovered by Shikamaru about three years after their constant accompany of each other. Just as Naruto had expected, Shikamaru wasn't bothered by the fact and acted with indifference. They had yet to tell Chouji the fact; it wasn't as if they didn't trust Chouji, it was an S rank secret for a reason after all. A slip of the tongue could lead to major consequences, quite the irony considering almost all of the adult Konoha populace knowing of the fact.

"It's alright; you don't have to feel bad. Had it been just me, I wouldn't even bother with this small cut. Unfortunately for me, my mother would scold me to no end if she sees it. Probably a faulty fuin was used. The fact that this only happened thrice on the whole time we were using them for five years proves that the 'blunted' seals were working." Shikamaru inspected the two kunai "By the way, I always wondered where they put the compressed seal in the kunais, I never saw them even once."

Naruto took one of the kunai and gestured to one side of its blade "Course you won't notice them, the method used to inscribe them involves a lot of process. You could consider it an advanced method with the technique used to create it. Not that they're really hard to do, more like they take too long to make. They also require a specialization in fuin arts. It's called 'Weapon Enhancement', true to its name; it's focuses on enhancing weapons which strangely, include armor; I'm not really sure why it does but it just is. It requires great knowledge of metallurgy to get this specialization. After all; each different mineral or metal used, the weapons shape, number of production and even the minor things such as the surface luster, texture and even color are variables to be taken to create a stable seal that will work on that specific weapon. One mistake can lead to it not working and even worse; it may malfunction and produce the opposite of intended effect. Heck its basic knowledge that tampering with Fuinjutsu without prior knowledge can lead to death due to explosion"

"Sound like it's a troublesome process"

"It is quite a hard thing to study but the result is well worth the effort. Take this kunai as an example, it's the most basic form of this specialization and it benefits an innumerable amount of people yet I don't even have the skills to make a single one of its copy. That's not even involving the process of making the seal meld so that it's invisible to the naked eye"

Shikamaru opened his mouth to yawn as he covered it with his hand. "I'm bored, I'll sleep on your apartment today cause' I didn't bring an extra shirt. Since the shoulders bloodied, there's no use of not having a wound when mother would just notice the bloodied cloth" The teen then started to walk to the direction of Naruto's apartment.

"I brought an extra shirt"

Shikamaru continued to walk even after Naruto's proclamation prompting him to follow lest he be left alone on the training ground

"Tsk. Why don't you just say that you want to mooch off of me then…"

No reply.

"Fine, let's just collect the items we used earlier at another day then. If one of them gets stolen, I'm making you pay this time."

* * *

(A few days later: Genin Exam Day)

The exam had three parts; Mental evaluation, which involved a simple test, Physical evaluation which involved a simple spar against a proctor as well as projectile throwing and the last part being the 'Jutsu Evaluation' which was basically the demonstration of the three academy jutsu.

Naruto had blitzed past through the first examination with relative ease, he was a complete opposite of his knucklehead counterpart as he was some sort of bookworm so the test was of no trouble for him, and especially for the fact it focused on history. The projectile throwing followed where he scored a perfect ten. He wasn't a perfectionist but the fact that he was used to having a moving target on his spars greatly increased his accuracy, though it was basically due to the target being close.

Naruto was then called out for the next part which was a spar with a Chunnin. He passed over Shikamaru who had took the spar just before him and high fived the kid after he was given high remarks.

Naruto looked to his opponent. Surprisingly, it was Mizuki who was his opponent and not Iruka like Shikamaru had. Naruto had found the man strange. At times, Mizuki would leer to Naruto when he thought the blond wasn't looking. It was as if Naruto had done something wrong to the man. At first Naruto had summed it up as his hatred for the kyuubi. This was later on proven wrong when Naruto did a background study and learnt that the man didn't lose anyone to the kyuubi. The man had a happy life and a beautiful girlfriend to boot. Naruto couldn't figure out his reason for hating him. He would occasionally try to hamper Naruto's growth by humiliating him by asking hard questions for academy students during classes, this didn't work with Naruto's extensive knowledge though. And so he tried to pair him with Sasuke every time he had the chance, he maybe wasn't able to get Sasuke to beat the blond but he did have reason to lower his grades.

Mizuki sported a grin that looked normal to the other students but looked to be predatory in Naruto's eyes. As if he had finally cornered a prey he had long tried to hunt. Naruto replied with a smirk of his own that replaced Mizuki's smirk with a scowl, the man was fast to cover it lest he be caught.

"The rules are simple. Naruto, you are only allowed to use a single jutsu. Should you know more than the basic three, you are only allowed to use rank b or less. Other than that, any physical move is allowed. In case you might ask, No; Mizuki is only allowed to use physical attacks. This is to make a handicap, he is still a Chunnin after all" Iruka stepped out of the platform as Naruto and Mizuki went to their respective positions "The match shall start in three…two….one" Iruka motioned his hand on a chop that signalled the start of the match.

Not a second after Iruka's signal, Naruto enhanced his foot with chakra and leapt forward with a punch in a show of speed to attack Mizuki.

This was the first time that Naruto had purposely enhanced himself with chakra in the academy so Mizuki was taken by surprise. When the Chunnin recovered from the initial surprise, Naruto was already too close for him to dodge the move so he opted to block crossed arms instead.

As Naruto's punch connected with Mizuki's arm, an audible impact was heard which made the students wince as if they felt the damage.

 _'Not only was he able to enhance his jump with chakra but also his punch, all in a split moment. Naruto's really done some serious training.'_ Iruka mused then looked at Mizuki who winced a bit before schooling his expression and made to attack Naruto. "Mizuki was too surprised to notice Naruto had enhanced his punch with chakra. Even if he was a Chunnin, defending an enhanced attack without proper defence was bound to hurt him. Now I'm thankful to him for asking to replace me as Naruto's partner." He spoke to no one in particular.

Naruto and Mizuki exchanged blows for a while without a break. Naruto was used to carrying weights during his free time and now that he had taken them off with a few days of getting used to, he was able to dodge and block Mizuki's attacks without getting a significant damage. This wasn't same with Mizuki who had taken three attacks already counting the opening attack. Mizuki's mind was a bit on haywire due to Naruto's skill that he was now only showing that he found it difficult to combat Naruto. Naruto had been used to using this tactic, making his opponents underestimate him then surprising them when he unleashed his true skills. Even Mizuki who was a Chunnin had a hard time defending as Naruto was using chakra to enhance his attacks and speed. Naruto's enhancement coupled with Mizuki's injured arms. The fight wasn't looking good with Mizuki.

 _'This kid, how did he get this strong! I can't even enhance myself or Iruka would notice it. He's making me embarrass myself in front of other instructors'_ He looked on three other teachers which only fuelled his anger. The tiny bit of distraction gave room for Naruto to land another attack, this time on Mizuki's left cheek. The punch finally cut the last straw of Mizuki's patience _'Damn all the consequences, I'm going all out. So long as I don't use any jutsu, I'll be technically safe against punishments'_ Mizuki then proceeded to enhance his body with chakra.

Iruka noticed the change and narrowed his eyes at Mizuki, not that the man noticed. _'What is he thinking enhancing himself against a student? His pride probably couldn't take it with the beating he was receiving. Still…..'_ Iruka continued to watch, keeping his judgements for himself as he observed the match. He knew he could easily stop Mizuki should he go mad with rage. Mizuki may be a Chunnin but Iruka had already received the right for a promotion to Tokubetsu Jounin but rejected it as he enjoyed teaching students. When he fully activated his 'Soul Imprint', he was confident in taking a standard Jounin. With his Soul Imprint active, he knew he could do more but the situation had never called for it.

Iruka had expected Naruto to receive a beating but was surprised to see that the teen was holding himself quite good against a higher ranked opponent. Iruka's lips curved with a smile. Naruto had gone a long way since he had entered the academy. Mizuki was going all out and such they were almost a blur to the least competent on the class. He could hear the wide gasps and awes of Naruto's classmate; he could also see the increasing scowl of the Uchiha who was deprived of his matches with the blond.

It had only been a few minutes since the start of the spar but the two showed no signs of stopping. Both of them had taken damages already. Mizuki's damage taken was more severe than Naruto's as the teen purposely increased the chakra put on his strikes to deal damage slightly even if the Chunnin was blocking. The Chunnin was more experienced thus was able to land more hits but dealt lesser damage partly due to slacking in his training; Naruto was also expending more chakra for defence than Mizuki did for offense so it mitigated most of the incoming damage.

Chakra enhancement itself was considered a Chunnin level skill, not because it was hard to do but because it required a lot of chakra so it was unsafe for Genin level and below to practice. Naruto's chakra levels were above impressive considering his age so he had no problem using it. Shikamaru himself could only use it sparingly due to his menial capacity.

 _'Time to do the finishing move'_ Naruto thought as he jumped back to create space. Mizuki stepped back as well, trying to recover a bit of chakra. The Chunnin instructor cursed under his breath his negligence to his training which was the primary reason why he was taking more damage from an academy student. He also cursed the fact that he couldn't perform any jutsu as he was supposed to give a handicap for this 'freak'.

Naruto landed with a crouch, his right hand hidden on his back away from his opponent and the eyes of his classmates and sensei's while his other hand was in a half ram seal as if in position to start doing handseals.

All the eyes of the instructors widened as he did this while those few academy students who understood what his actions meant were greatly impressed with their respects with the blond skyrocketing, except a certain dark haired teen whose anger only grew bigger. This time with a huge tint of envy added.

* * *

(Above roofs of the academy a few moments earlier)

Five individuals were perched above the academy roofs observing the match on the sparring field. Naruto was seen walking towards the sparring field and high fived another individual who had a spiky ponytailed hair.

One of the persons huffed out a smoke as he took out his cigarette and spoke "Say Kurenai, do you think the kids got a chance to win" He was man a tall man, with brown eyes, olive skin, short black spiky hair, and a beard. His clothing consisted of the standard Konoha ninja uniform with the sleeves rolled up half way, flak jacket, regular Shinobi sandals and forehead protector. He also wore a sash that had the kanji for "Fire" (火) marked on it around his waist, a pair of black bangles, and bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves.

The one named Kurenai remained silent. She was a fair-skinned woman of slender build. She had long black untamed hair reaching her upper back and very unique eyes that are red in colour, with an additional ring in them. She wore make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. Her outfit consisted of a red mesh armour blouse with only the right sleeve visible. It was a broad material which resembles bandages with a pattern on it similar to those of rose thorns.

"I shall bet 5000 Ryo that Naruto-sans flame of youth shall triumph and let him win against his opponent regardless the rank difference" It was a man who had a shiny bowl style haircut and remarkably thick eyebrows who replied. He wore a green jumpsuit, orange striped leg warmers, and the standard Konoha flak jacket. His red forehead protector was worn around his waist like a belt.

"Would you stop smoking Asuma, this is a school which means it's a no smoking environment" Kurenai scolded the man holding a cigarette now named Asuma. She then turned to the man who previously spoke of a bet "Do you know of Uzumaki-san Gai?"

"Not personally, but I often see him training and sparring together most youthfully together with a Nara companion. To think that there was an academy student as persevered as him. I was always motivated every time I see him working out till he is almost passed out. Such a student with great flames of youth had I not have another team and apprentice to train; I would have taken him personally and trained him" Gai answered.

"So he's got the drive? Does that mean that he has the talent to go with it too?" A fairly tall woman who was of slender frame spoke; she had light brown, pupil-less eyes. A violet hair styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She was wearing a fitted mesh body suit that covered her from her neck down to her thighs. Over this, she wears a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark orange mini-skirt, a dark blue belt, and pale grey shin guards.

"What Anko said….." The last person yet to be introduced spoke. The man had gravity defying spiky silver hair. One of his eyes was dark grey while the other was covered by his forehead protector. He had a relaxed, heavy-lidded expression as he spoke.

"With perseverance, talent can be overcome. But we shall see if Naruto-san also has talent as he has perseverance in spades"

"I'll bet 5000 too but against Naruto-san. I find it hard that an academy student would be defeat a Chunnin instructor regardless of their circumstances in this case" Kurenai spoke.

"5000 in favour of Naruto….." Kakashi didn't even finish his sentence but was interrupted by Anko, he didn't look bothered though.

"5000 against the kid"

"5000 against him"

"The winner shall take all the losers cash then divide the earnings then. Yosh!"

The matched started just as Gai finished speaking. Naruto had immediately gone for a chakra enhanced punch that was only blocked by his opponent in the last second.

"That must have hurt a bit I'm sure" Asuma commented.

"He deserves it for not paying attention in battle, Chunnin his ass!" It was Anko who spoke this time.

"It is an academy student he is combatting it was a common mistake"

The battle continued as they watched silently. A moment later, they felt the Chunnin enhance himself with chakra when the battle wasn't going on his favour.

"He even needed to use enhancement to keep up with the kid! What it he, A Genin? How the heck did he pass the Chunnin Exams? " It was still Anko who had spoken, clearly irritated with the instructors performance.

Kurenai was fast to chastise her "Shhh, the good parts just about to come."

They watched as Naruto received more strikes than he could deliver but took less damage than the instructor due to chakra enhancements.

"The heck! I should have voted against that stupid instructor!"

"While I do agree with your statement, would you please just keep silent? The battle has yet to be finished."

The two exchanged blows till the blond teen jumped back to create a space landing on a crouch his left hand on his back away from the eyes of the five, what surprised them was the half ram seal on Naruto's front hand.

"What the hell! The kid can do a one hand jutsu!" Anko almost shouted.

The other four individuals were too shocked to reply. While most of them were capable of performing one handed jutsu, they were only able to do it when they had achieved the rank of Jounin and had enough experience. To think that an academy student was capable of performing such a feat on his academy days was a preposterous thought.

Kakashi was first to recover from the shock and spoke "While it is impressive for him to be able to do that at an early age, I don't think this is the right time for him to perform this move" He then pointed to the blonds opponent who had just recovered from shock and dashed forward, giving up defence for a straight frontal attack.

The five looked at the match going with renewed focus.

* * *

(Back at Naruto vs Mizuki match)

Upon noticing Naruto's half ram seal on his crouched form. Mizuki was shocked to his core, unable to comprehend how an academy student was not only able to outdo him in physical combat but was now showing signs of doing a one hand jutsu that even he was still incapable of doing.

'No way!' He shouted on his mind. 'I gotta do something fast or else…' He didn't want to think of the possible circumstance that would ensue should the blond finish what he was doing.

He immediate opted for a straight frontal dash, forgoing his defence 'That's right! So long as he doesn't get to finish that jutsu; He's good as done. Right now he's fully open to any attack, I don't even have to put any defence'

Mizuki was in front of Naruto in less than a few seconds and cocked back his right hand infusing it with a considerable amount of chakra. He wasn't taking any chances so he put enough with it to put down a standard Genin even though his opponent was still an academy student. 'So long, sucker' He smirked before moving to deliver the punch.

"Got ya!" He heard the blond whisper.

Mizuki disregarded the kids statement as a fluke and went for the punch but didn't expect the next events that happened. As soon as he moved to make the infused punch and the kid whispered sand particles to throw to the instructors eyes.

As Mizuki was directly in front of Naruto and had given up all pretence of defence . Naruto immediately stopped his one hand from making handseals and opted to reveal his other hand hidden on his back for a few moments already.

Mizuki still disregarded the tiny move as a desperate attempt to block but was unable to predict what Naruto's hidden hand was supposed to do. He was unable to dodge Naruto's hidden hand which was previously clenched and was spread open to reveal that he had picked up something which he threw at the unsuspecting instructor.

Naruto threw the sand particles he had hidden straight into the Chunnin's face, effectively blinding him temporarily and making his punch miss as Naruto was able to evade the misbalanced throw.

"Gah!You cheating Brat!" He shouted as he closed his eyes and covered them with his hands to prevent further damage.

"We're ninja's sensei." Naruto calmly replied as he sped through a series of handseals. He finished with a ram seal and slapped his hands on the ground "Earth Release: Earth Spike!"

True to the techniques name, a sizeable earth spike grew at a rapid pace in front of Naruto and hit the defenceless instructor with great force in his abdomen. Naruto had purposely used an increased amount of chakra than it would regularly take to perform the jutsu in order to ensure that the instructor would be out for good.

The instructor who was hit in the stomach and was thrown a considerable amount of distance before gravity took its role and made Mizuki fall with an audible thud.

The whole academy went silent as the gravity of the situation finally settled in front of them. An academy student had just defeated a Chunnin instructor, provided that he had a handicap.

It was a purple haired teacher who was the first to make the move towards the defeated Chunnin's body and used the 'Mystic Palms' jutsu to heal his injuries. "Carry on with the matches; we don't have the whole day to dawdle!"

Iruka was fast to diffuse the situation and set up for the new matches while Mizuki was being healed by the purple haired teacher. While his injuries were in not severe, the blow to his pride sure was. Naruto had received a full score remark for winning his match.

The result of Naruto's match was good news for two individuals perched on the rooftop as well as the bad luck of three others.

* * *

The examinations proceeded to its final phase; The Ninjutsu portion, which was to be performed. By then, Mizuki had already recovered and went to watch the students perform. All the other three instructors they had including Iruka were inside the room eager to see the performance of their students.

The Ninjutsu examinations room looked like any normal classroom except that it was long enough to fit two classes. The chairs and tables of the students were on the other side of the classroom while it was completely barren on the opposite side minus the blackboard. There was also a red circle on the floor indicating it as the proper place for performing the jutsu's required.

Normally, the only people present during this particular examination were the instructors that taught the said graduating class or classes but this case was special. This particular class contained most of the clan heirs from the most important clans of Konoha, as such they required special judges. The three judges sat on the front seats closest to the performance circle.

On the center of the three judges sat the current Hokage of Konoha, none other than Hiruzen Sarutobi. He wore the standard Hokage Uniform consisting of the customary hat and haori, along with a red, full-length kimono that was tied using a white sash; on the back of the uniform was written 'Third Hokage'.

The second judge was none other than Shikaku Nara.

The third judge wore the standard Anbu gear, his mask being that of a boar. In reality, only the Hokage was needed to be pleased while the two others were simply escorts.

It had already been decided that only nine individuals were to be passed to take the actual Genin test as there was a limited amount of Jounin that were available this year. It was a sad thing but what the public didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Well, not much.

After a while, all the other students were finished with their own performances. Naruto found it strange that he was the last to perform but shrugged it off as coincidence.

He walked inside the room and saw the three judges waiting patiently for him. He strode towards the designated circle and awaited their confirmation for starting.

"Not too surprised about the judges?" Shikaku started.

"I had already expected that there would be a special judge dispatched as the current batch is somewhat.." He paused to consider his next words "-special. Considering almost all of Konoha's prominent clan heirs are in this batch. The others were probably warned not to speak about whose inside here."

"A good insight is a prerequisite to make a good Shinobi. It seems you do not lack this particular trait Naruto-kun" The third Hokage stated.

Naruto bowed to the man before replying "I am grateful for the praise Hokage-sama."

The third Hokage may not have shown outwards but he was a little bit disturbed on the inside. True he hadn't had time to see Naruto since he was nine but that was because he was busy. Most of the time he had actually spent time with the blond was due to him visiting the Hokage's tower or his residence. Ever since he had changed, he had hardly monitored the blonds change as he was busy with his job. Naruto not calling him 'jiji' like he always had, greatly surprised him and made him wonder just how much of the teen's growth he had missed. Nevertheless, he had figured he would just look at the kids file later on; it had grown thicker than he had expected it.

"Very, Please start the demonstration. Start with the Kawarimi then Henge and lastly, the Bunshin. Should you fail any of these three, I am afraid we shall have you retry the examinations next year unless you are able to give a viable excuse." Shikaku said.

Naruto nodded politely and started the handseals for the Kawarimi jutsu. He swapped places with the nearby chair that was supposed to be the target. Upon finishing the first jutsu, he looked to the Hokage; seeing the man nod, he took it as a cue to continue his performance.

Naruto performed the handseals for the Henge which made the three judges narrow their eyes but said nothing nonetheless. There was a puff of smoke that covered Naruto which meant that there was excess chakra used but the judges didn't find it a good reason to prejudge the performance before seeing the final result. Normally, the Henge would not produce smoke that would cover the body as excess smoke meant excess chakra usage, it also meant that the enemies would notice the physical change and remove the purpose of the disguise. Naruto's capacity meant he found it harder to perform 'weaker' jutsu's which was the reason they let go of Naruto's miscalculation. The true reason they had narrowed their eyes at Naruto's performance was his use of different handseals compared to the usual ones given for the academy.

It took no more than three seconds for the smoke to clear and when it did, the three judges were mildly surprised to see that Naruto's transformation was perfect regardless of the 'wrong' handseals used as well as the excess chakra. Naruto had transformed into his academy instructor, Iruka. The transformation had been perfect down to the smallest details. There were no tell-tale signs of the illusion which were usually; the wrong shadow shape or positioning or the blurry parts of the illusion which meant those parts were not too familiar with the caster.

"That's really impressive Naruto!" This time, Iruka wasn't able to contain his surprise at Naruto's perfect transformation of him and commended the blond rather loudly.

The Hokage faked a coughed to divert the attention to him prompting the Chunnin instructor ask for an apology and fumble with himself, his proud look for his student never leaving his signalled for Naruto's next and final demonstration.

Naruto dropped the illusion and gained a concentrated look on his face as he sped through the handseals for the Bunshin jutsu. A slight shimmer of light formed on both his sides just as two perfect copies of himself sprout to existence. For a full ten seconds, the judges scrutinized the clones confirming if they were good enough or not. After inspecting, they had allowed Naruto to drop the technique and they shimmered out of existence.

Hiruzen then looked to Shikaku and motioned him to speak his mind. The man had said earlier that he was a bit familiar with the blond as he was a frequent visitor to their clan compound. The Hokage trusted that Naruto would be more open to the man knowing that Naruto was probably more comfortable with him than the Hokage due to the time lapse of their meetings.

Shikaku was fast to comply and handed the score sheet to the teachers commanding them to tell the other students that the examinations were over.

After watching the instructors leave, he turned to Naruto and gave a slight smile as if to congratulate him even before the results were given "You performed the basic three splendidly Naruto and to that, I congratulate you" He paused considering his next choice of words carefully "However, there are a few things we would like to know about your earlier performances."

Naruto nodded as reply to the praise and stood straighter to signal that he was ready for any question by the man.

"The Kawarimi by itself pose no question as it was perfect in any way but the other two does. I'll ask about the Bunshin first since it's a simpler question. How were you able to perform it? nowing that out of the three, only the Bunshin had a fixed amount of chakra required. By now I'm sure you know that you have more chakra than the whole classroom combined which should have made it near impossible for you to transform."

"Due to being used to chakra levels of everybody other student in the academy. You probably had forgotten to check up on mine Shikaku-san" He replied politely.

"Oh.." Shikaku spoke out as if he had just forgotten something very basic and continued to put his focus on Naruto's chakra levels. Shikaku himself was a sensor so it took no less a second for him to be able to do so. He gained an amused face upon finishing the check and a chuckle escaped his mouth before continuing. "Your chakra levels match the other students too much that it blended well enough to be unnoticed. With that chakra level, it would be easy as pie to perform any of the three basics. Haha, what a funny thought, I myself am a sensor yet got fooled"

"I entered the academy earlier with chakra only enough for a combat against anothe student. Due to the opponent being an instructor, my chakra levels dropped lower to the point of being a regular civilian student which you had already seen, made the basic three easier for me to perform. I had already expected my chakra to recover during the breaks so I constantly performed the Kawarimi each time I felt that I had more than needed"

Shikaku nodded in understanding and continued to his next question "Both the Kawarimi and Bunshin were as normal as could be. The Henge however was not. The handseals exist to control the flow and shape of chakra as well as its attributes, a single difference could cause various effects. The academy three of course are simple enough that even if you add a few handseals wouldn't affect them as long as the visualization is correct. Later on they will probably also be the first jutsu's you can perform without handseals-"

Naruto looked as Shikaku explained the workings of the jutsu, knowing full well where the conversation was going.

"-The academy teaches the proper handseals for the academy three for a reason. They are the most perfect and most efficient way to start practicing the three. What you did was not fully wrong but it is in the case of principle or practicality. I assume you had taken longer to master them than your classmates did?"

Nod.

"Now that is the reason. Had you followed the proper steps, you would have mastered it faster meaning more time for progress in another area. Regardless of your perfect transformation to the most minute detail, the excess chakra which is expunged as smoke defeats the purpose of the transformation, which is to say; deception. Your enemy seeing the smoke dissipate even while you are hiding behind something means you have given away the fact that you have performed a jutsu and make them cautious for your next move. Not only did you take longer by using more handseals but you had also used way too much excess chakra, if you had not made a perfect illusion then I am afraid that we would have failed your attempt. Make this a lesson that you follow the proper steps next time Naruto. Of course this doesn't mean that you are prevented from graduation, it is just a friendly reminder for next time this situation occurs"

Naruto didn't move or speak after shikaku's lecture which made the man raise an eyebrow. He shifted in his position as if debating himself whether to speak up his mind or keep silent.

In the end, he decided not to.

"I thank you for the pointers Shikaku-san"

"I see, then you may now take your leave. Come back next week on friday for the team placements"

* * *

(The next day)

The classroom was quite as they waited for Iruka to finish his hour long speech which was supposedly his farewell speech for the graduate class.

"Now, as I have already told you earlier. Every year there is only a limited amount of Jounin available to take upon a team and as such. Only the students which the judges have selected will be given a chance. Unfortunately this year, we have lesser amount than anticipated so only three teams have been assigned"

Iruka stopped to survey the reactions of his students before continuing.

A random student raised his hand "Sensei, if there are only a few to be chosen. Why do we all get to come here? Does this mean there's some sort of special way to enter?"

Iruka's smiled "Well, I'm afraid we don't do special examinations so you will have to retake next year. However there are a few who have been deemed good enough but as we have no spare Sensei's, they will have to be put in reserves. The others, well. Somebody to clean up the school before summer break right?"

A set of groans and complains followed but the Chunnin hushed them and he continued to give the team assignments.

"Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Naruto Uzumaki and

Sasuke Uchiha. You will have Kakashi Hatake as your Sensei. Come forward to collect your forehead protectors."

Before the fangirls could start to complain about the unfairness of Sakura being with 2 targets of their affection, Iruka continued "Team eight will be Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame. Your Jounin-Sensei will be Yuuhi Kurenai"

"Neh, Sensei. What about team one to six?"

"Team numbers are temporary and given only to Genin teams. Later on your careers, you will be given another team name or you can keep the number for yourselves. In this case, teams one to six are still on rotation. Teams will be disbanded when at least two of the three reach the rank of Jounin or if they are dead. Of course, after a team number is disbanded. It will be used by the next generation to simplify the identification process" Iruka happily replied.

"Since team nine is still in rotation. Team ten will be composed of Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka and Chouji Akimichi. Your Jounin Sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi."

The three walked forward to collect their forehead protectors before returning to their seats.

The door opened to reveal three individuals waiting for their respective assigned students and motioned for them to follow. Iruka motioned for the selected students to follow the orders of their new Sensei's and bade them good luck. He then turned to the remaining students and started.

"Now that were done with that. Let's move on to the unlucky students who were good enough to pass yet didn't have an available Sensei. You will be drafted to the Genin reserves but rest assured, unlike those who have left. Your spot as a Genin is secured already."

"Does this mean they still aren't official sensei? Then why do they get Hita-itae?"

"Now that'd be ruining the surprise. Can't have you telling them that. Oh and" He narrowed his eyes "Anybody who informs any of those who left will be assigned to clean the restrooms for three months at the start of class after summer."

The students were wise to keep their opinions to themselves.

* * *

(On naruto's side)

The three teams had scattered earlier as each of their Jounin's had a different place in mind.

Naruto found his team walking towards a particular training ground with a few trees surrounding a small clearing where their Sensei had decided to stop.

"So before we start introducing ourselves, Do you have anything to say?" The silver haired Jounin started.

A second later, it was Naruto who decided to ask. "Did the Hokage disregard my request for a particular Sensei or teammate. Was it that it was incompatible with the team placements they had in plan?"

Kakashis eyebrow quirked. "You knew he was supposed to be a Jounin sensei this year?" It wasn't surprising for an academy student to look up to a few of the prominent Jounins in the village. What was surprising was having the knowledge of which Jounin's were available on the program for particular year. Especially since the Jounin-Sensei's were unrevealed until earlier during the team placements.

"Asuma-san promised me that he would teach me what I need to know and train me on what he knows to be the best method for me."

Sasuke and Sakura who were silent in the background were having a hard time believing what naruto was saying to their Jounin sensei. Asking for the reason why you didn't get the teacher you want in front of the one assigned to you, that was rude. Naruto was lucky the man didn't seem to be offended at all.

"Unlucky you then. The team placements are assigned specifically by the Hokage. As you might have noticed. All members of team eight are specifically focused on one type of skill"

"Tracking" Sasuke supplied on the sidelines.

Kakashi nodded to Sasuke before turning back to Naruto "That's right. And team ten was specifically requested by the parents of your classmates. Its a long running Clan tradition also known as Ino-Shika-Chou formation. Asuma was asked to be their Sensei by the three clan leaders so the Hokage had to give them their request which is the reason the three of you are left with me" Kakashi gave a lazy eye smile.

"I see, so that was the reason. I'm sorry if I had come off as rude to ask you the question. I meant no offense"

"None taken. Now...Since that's done and you don't have any further questions." Kakashi looked at Sasuke and Sakura for confirmation before continuing. "Let's start with the introductions. Name, likes, dislikes, hobbies or dreams, you decide what to tell. I'll go first then. My name is Kakashi Hatake, I like to read the icha icha series like this one..." He retrieved an orange book from his pocket and showed them to his students.

Sakura glared at the man "Hey aren't those smut!"

"No interruptions pinkie, you'll have your turn." He turned serious "As a ninja, you should learn to respect other peoples quirks or else you might end up in a situation you won't like"

Sakura looked sheepish and asked for an apology.

Kakashi went back to his previous persona and continued "My dislikes are, well...I don't really have one I think. My dreams, Hmm...Haven't really decided yet. Your turn pinkie."

She looked surprised upon realizing she was next

"Wait what?me?" She pointed at herself for emphasis.

"No. Not you Sakura, Kakashi Sensei was talking to the tree." Naruto pointed to a nearby tree making both Sasuke and Kakashi chuckle.

Sakura looked at Sasuke and blushed both for being embarrassed in front of his crush and seeing the said crush look cute while chuckling.

Sasuke noticed Sakura's gaze and gave her his trademark scowl. This then made the said teen glare at Naruto who she thought was the source of her demise.

She was promptly ignored by the blond.

After a few moments, she schooled her expression and continued with the introductions. "My name is Sakura Haruno, I like a certain someone in my class" she peeked at Sasuke making him scowl even more "and as of now, I dislike another." this time she sent a glare to Naruto's direction which was ignored. "My dream is to be a successful kunoichi."

"Next, broody."

Sasukes scowl was back "I am not broodie. My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I like tomatoes, and I hate-" he glanced at Sakura's direction "-I hate fangirls. My dream, no! my goal is to kill a certain man and restore my clan"

"I see, so you plan to use the Clan restoration act to make your own harem. Can't argue with that" Sasuke was about to complain but Kakashi prevented him from continuing "Your next Blondie."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I have various likes and hobbies which I will only reveal when I feel I can trust you. I dislike those who judge without knowing and those who don't know due to wilful ignorance. My goal is to have a life where I can do what I want, learn what I want and go where I want to without being bothered."

"Not to be a Hokage?" Kakashi asked.

"Not to be a Hokage." Naruto repeated.

"That's a carefree goal you have there, you wouldn't mind if I have that as mine too right?" His eye smile was back for some reason.

"Feel free."

"Thanks then, that makes my future introductions easier then."

Kakashi posture changed to a more serious one which alerted the three.

"Normally, I would have sent you at home to prepare but since I was required to be early today. Might as well get done with it." He took out two bells from his pocket and showed them to the three students in front. "Your goal is to get one of this bells from me. Since you can see there are only two available. This means the one who can't get the bell gets sent to h academy." cue eye smile.

"But sensei! How can that be? I don't know of any Genin team fresh from the academy with only two genin members. Iruka sensei said that was only possible if one member dies or is promoted"

Kakashi blinked owlishly and looked to Sakura who had just asked a simple question that was enough to ruin the exercise.

"I see..." Naruto put his fingers on his chin on a thinking position "...So the plan was to make us fight for the bell. With this we will be blinded with the fact that we can't actually defeat a Jounin. Which means that the true test was to work together to have at least a small chance of success." Naruto brightened up as if he had just realized one of the world's wonders "That was brilliant just brilliant. This should sweep up those without the proper mindset. If you can't look underneath the underneath, then you are a failure as a ninja! and it even promotes teamwork!"

Kakashi one eye grew wide with the events that just transpired. He had not expected this circumstance. He had not expected the pink haired one to accidentally give a clue nor did he expect Naruto to get the whole point of the test.

With no other idea he could come up with, he opted to the only viable solution he had left in minx.

"Sasuke you get tied to the training post"

"What!"

* * *

"Why do I get to be the one tied up?"

"Cause you were the only one who didn't contribute to solving the test"

"Sakura didn't even mean to solve it!"

"That's where you're wrong Sasuke. Every action has a consequence, whether you mean it or not. This time, Sakura's action led to Naruto's discovery. Which means Sakura's action was pivotal for Naruto's successful answer."

Kakashi transferred his gaze to the two remaining untied students.

"I need to get something. I'll be back in the afternoon. You are not allowed to feed Sasuke with those or leave this place before I come back. That's an order." Kakashi pointed to the free lunchboxes he provided then left with a swirl of leaves.

Silence ensued later on but was broken when a loud noise erupted from their stomachs. They looked up to the sun and noticed that it was already in the middle of the horizon.

Sakura couldn't take it and decided to open the free lunchbox that Kakashi has given and started to eat. "I'm sorry Sasuke-kun. Don't worry, if we follow Sensei's orders, well be finished in no time. I'll even treat you later on if you want" Sakura wouldn't normally be able to do this action in front of her crush but her stomach decided against her.

Naruto looked at Sakura and shook his head in disappointment, He then followed to open his box. After opening his lunchbox, he stood up and walked towards Sasuke who was tied to the post and scooped a small portion of his lunch, ordering Sasuke to take it as the spoon hovered towards his mouth.

"Naruto, What are you doing. Kakashi sensei said..."

"I know what he said Sakura. but I also know that what he is asking for is unreasonable. I can't eat in just knowing that my teammate is starving. I would not actually have to resort to this had you not opened your box and started eating in front of Sasuke. We can't be a team if we only think about ourselves. It beats the purpose of having one." He shifted his attention to Sasuke. "I promise I will not tell anyone of this. Now open your mouth and eat before Kakashi Sensei comes back. He said he'll be back in the afternoon so we have plenty of time. I won't be able to eat if you don't."

Sasuke looked surprised with Naruto's action and was too shocked to reply. Clearly he had not expected Naruto to act this way with him.

Sakura felt embarrassed for her actions. It was soon replaced with excitement as she realized what was happening in front of her. She couldn't suppress her giggle. Two of the academies biggest heart robs were eating together! And not just that. One of them was feeding the other!Oh, what she would have given for a camera to take a picture! This development would make the other girls crazy jealous against sakura.

Sakura couldn't take it and promptly passed out.

The following thud as Sakura fell made both the boys turn their attention to her. Both of them eyerolled at the girl's antics.

'Fangirls' they thought simultaniously.

Naruto continued to feed Sasuke till there was nothing left on the box. By this time, Sakura had already woken up with the comical fainting she had just came from and looked at the two.

Kakashi's voice entered from behind Sakura which made the girl yelp in surprise "Hmm, I guess I'll have to fail you three for insubordination then?"

"No you don't Sensei."

Kakashi turned to Naruto with a questioning look which the teen answered with a pointing finger to Kakashi's side.

Kakashi cocked his head to his side and saw Naruto's lunchbox still untouched. He then turned to the teen again who was holding the empty lunchbox he had used to feed Sasuke. "So you went out to get another lunch? This means you still disobeyed my order"

Naruto shook his head in denial and procured a tiny scroll from his kunai holster. Naruto opened the scroll revealing a fuin circle which was blank in the middle. The blond proceeded to put the empty lunchbox he recently used and sealed it to the scroll, which now has a kanji of "lunchbox". He turned to Kakashi then spoke. "You said we couldn't feed Sasuke with the food you gave us, I didn't. You said we can't leave to buy food, I didn't. This means I didn't break any rules and so, I am qualified to pass the test and so are they." He finished with a blank look. He then picked up the lunch that Kakashi gave. "Thank you for the free lunch. I'll eat it at home."

If Kakashi was surprised on the Bell Test, this time; he was amazed with the Blond. He was able to pass both Tests without much trouble. The only problem was that because they didn't break the rule to feed Sasuke, he had no reason now to tell his favourite qoute*.

Kakashi suppressed a sigh, He really liked that qoute. He schooled his expression and inhaled. "Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. You three are now official members of Team Seven."

Three triumphant looks was their reply to him. Sakura started to unbind Sasuke of his bindings much to the Uchiha's discomfort. Sakura kept giggling each time their skins touched.

Kakashi looked at the two thinking 'Fangirl through blood, I just hope there's still hope for her.' He waited for Sakura to nish undinding Sasuke before speaking. "Come back tomorrow for your first mission. Team Dismissed."

The three bowed and turned back to go to their respective homes but stopped in their tracks as Kakashi called out to them.

"Wait!" The three turned to Kakashi awaiting for his further words.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head and sloppily said. "I just wanted to tell you that I'd have passed you even if you had fed Sasuke. You see" He paused for a dramatic. "Those break their mission are trash, but those who leave their comrades are worse than trash". 'There, finally said it.' He finished in his thoughts.

He looked at the three for a reaction but was disappointed for the lack thereof. He really thought the dramatic pause would nail it.

"I will keep that in mind Sensei"

"I understand, I won't sacrifice Sasuke-kun for a mission. Love is more important"

Said teen glared at the speaker "Hn. Depends on the mission"

The three then excused themselves and started to go back on their own ways.

Kakashi ruffed his hands on his head. "I will need a drink; I think troublesome times are ahead. I should've went here later" He gave the three one last glance before leaving.

* * *

(Back to the three)

"Sasuke-kun, would you like to eat together to celebrate our victory"

"I'm full, I just ate. Why don't you offer to Naruto"

"I have something important to finish." Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Why don't you come with me then. A couple of hands for help would be good. I'll even treat you for dinner. I made tomato paste, I'll cook something to match it too"

"Hey! why am I not invited? I can help too!"

"Right now, your more trouble than it's worth Sakura."

"Hn."

Naruto jumped to the nearest roof. Sasuke followed a moment later.

Before Sakura could recover from being left behind. The two were already out of her sight. "Hey!"

* * *

(Hokage's Tower)

Kakashi stood in front of the Hokage after delivering the events that transpired about his Genin Team.

All the Jounin sensei were supposed to report to the Hokage after their respective team examinations were finalized. Both Kurenai and Asuma had already finished reporting but Kakashi himself waited a few hours to be late.

"He doesn't want to be Hokage?" The hokage asked.

"He doesn't."

The Hokage gave a sigh and huffed his pipe to relax himself. "He has probably grown tired of the treatment he was receiving." He paused.

"To do what you want, learn what you want and go where you want to without being bothered. What a carefree dream then. I just wish that 'somewhere' was in Konoha."

"We can only hope Hokage-sama."

"Yes Kakashi, we can only hope."

-Chapter End-

* * *

Welp,,, I hope that went well for your taste guys. Some of you might be disappointed with the action scenes but I want you to understand that its still too early for hardcore fighting. By time, I'll probably be good enough by time I need to write them or maybe I won't. Well just have to wait.

Some of you are probably angry that I'm pretty slow at updating but I'll have to excuse myself. We all have our daily lives after all. I can't really rush the chaps since I don't want to drop the minimal quality it already has. I hope you understand.

I would also like to thank the guys who posted the first few reviews. I feel happy knowing that my first reviews for this fanfic are positive ones.

Oh and most importantly...This is not a yaoi fic. I didn't tag romance in it so I hope you don't misunderstand Sasuke's interaction with Naruto.

As I also said before, I don't have beta readers(not really in dire need of one) thus I personally proofread the chapters before uploading them. If you have suggestions or recommendations on my story. I would gladly hear them out but I won't promise anything about including them directly on the story. Its still nice hearing things from the readers though; with each and everyone having different perspectives, we learn more as we try to incorporate and understand one another.

Peace out

-shunozuko18


	4. Chapter 4:Red Glowing Eyes

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other References I may use in this Fanfiction.

* * *

AN: So here I am again with another chapter of **Stronger!.** As you've read in the previous chapter, Naruto finally gets on his team. So usually, this is the time where other fics continue directly to the Wave Arc, but not on mine!

Also… I've decided that I would use the originally used Romaji names for the jutsu's used in the story(for those originally from NarutoVerse) whilst I use the made up English names for those jutsu's that I made up myself. Hope you guys don't mind it much; the English translation will be available on the author's note at the end of the chapter.

Finally as a side note, sorry for the late update. I had actually told myself that I'd update at least once a month but… I guess life has other plans for hehe.

* * *

"Hey, that's mine"- speaking

 _'I wonder what I'll have for dinner.'_ \- Thoughts

 **Bold letters** \- Shouting, tailed beast talking or jutsu (or sfx)

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Red Glowing Eyes.**

* * *

 **(A random training ground in Konoha)**

 **"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu"***

A huge fireball raced towards the intended target; engulfing the area with bright flames, a strong explosion followed with thick smoke covered the vicinity.

Two eyes surveyed the area, looking for signs of its target being hit but found none, the thick smoke covered the area after the explosion blocked most of the view providing limited vision.

The fireball user narrowed his eyes scrutinizing the smokescreen. Usually, the accompanying smoke created after he would use the Fireball jutsu would clear after a few seconds. This one was strange in the way that it had already been almost twelve seconds but gave no signs of dissipating. It was almost as if….

Eye's widening in realization, he started a series of handseals. His instincts told him to jump back just a few moments before he finished the handseals and released the jutsu mid-air.

 **"Kai!"**

His speculation was proven right when the smoke cleared after releasing the Genjutsu breaker technique. The once smoke filled area was then replaced by an individual in its place. The person was in a crouching position with his left foot forward and his right foot on a kneeling position. Both of his palms were open and planted on the ground and levelled with his front foot.

"Took you long enough Sasuke." The revealed person smirked in his position.

Sasuke noticed four shadows slithering from his palms –two on each - towards him. The fact that they were already upon him meant that the technique had been executed while the smokescreen was still present, he had been lucky enough his instincts warned him to retreat or else He would have been already caught.

A shadow suddenly burst forth in a show of speed and tried to attack his left foot like a pike which caused him to sidestep in a rushed manner; he was then immediately forced to duck in a crouch as another shadow spike passed a few centimetres above his head; The shadow, seemingly not willing to give him time to breath, once more stroke from behind, luckily his instincts kicked back giving him the chance to dodge.

The onslaught continued for a few minutes as he twisted and turned to evade the shadows. With each escape he successfully did, the next 'attack' became harder to evade.

 _'They keep getting faster and faster. Three minutes yet they've already accelerated to double speed. If this continues, I'll get caught before Shikamaru runs out of chakra.'_ The Uchiha thought worriedly as he carefully dodged the onslaught of the shadows.

Sasuke took a quick glance on Shikamaru, taking note of the victorious smirk in the Nara's face when they made eye contact. Sasuke knew it was a fake one. The Nara had never been the braggart; he was an individual who was cautious even when the fight had already been over. No! This smirk wasn't a sign of being confident in his win; this one was made to goad Sasuke into rage and make him irrational. He wouldn't fall for that.

Noticing the fact that he was being backed to a corner, Sasuke dodged a few more strikes before he desperately tried to start a string of handseals.

His opponent noticed this and made his move. One shadow struck to his ankle forcing him to jump, another as an uppercut forcing him to disengage the handseals lest he be caught. The position mid-air gave him the opportunity for a backflip.

Whilst mid-air, he immediately guided his hands towards the weapons holster and flung two Shuriken's towards Shikamaru. Sasuke smirked as he noticed the conflicted face Shikamaru was making; he knew that Shikamaru was purposely backing him to a corner as the shadow user couldn't risk the chance of a counter attack.

The smirk was immediately replaced with a scowl as Shikamaru seemingly made up his mind, spawning another shadow to deflect both the Shuriken's. Sasuke landed and backed away a few steps to create distance against the shadows that were on the move once more, the extra shadow following on pursuit.

 _'I see, so the acceleration of the shadows reset if Shikamaru loses focus for a split moment.'_ His theory was proven true as the onslaught of the shadows seemed to have been easier to evade than before. Nevertheless, Sasuke knew that they would soon recover their lost momentum if given a chance. This time also, Shikamaru was more careful in his moves making the attacks more decisive and precise enough to leave him no room for retaliation.

Three minutes later, the shadows have once more gained their lost momentum and with the extra spawn, Sasuke knew it was only a matter of seconds before he made a mistake and get caught. Sparing a quick glance at Shikamaru, he saw the Nara with a blank look, a look that could only be seen on machines that hold no emotions, also known as a ninja's poker face. Sasuke knew that the shadow user only used this face when he was at his wits end, when he could spare no effort to his body language and was forced to put his full focus on the battle on hand. Sasuke had only seen Shikamaru go this way during his spars with Naruto. True enough that Sasuke won on most of their bouts, but he had never seen the Nara show him this side of him on their spars, this was a first for him, this made him feel invigorated once more giving him the willpower to go on with the match with more enthusiasm which he hasn't felt for a long time.

The Uchiha knew that there was a reason his opponent would go so far as give his all

* * *

N

* * *

Perched on a nearby treetop were pair of Jounin-sensei's and a Genin, observing the match carefully. The two Jounin's were Kakashi, who was leaning on the tree in a lazy manner; and Asuma who was strangely unmotivated on the smoke in his hands, his focus was instead full on the sparring students a few meters away from them. The Genin, perched on another branch, standing with arms in his pockets was Naruto.

"Say, Asuma. Did you tell Shikamaru that we made a bet against them today? He seems more motivated than usual. In fact, I've never seen him this motivated." To any other observer, Kakashi's voice would seem unconcerned but Asuma knew more than that.

"Then you haven't seen him go against Naruto yet."

"So Shikamaru and Naruto's spars are that interesting? Hmmm… That's good then, this should be enough to motivate me to watch their spars. Kurenai did say it was interesting to watch but I wasn't that convinced since Anko doesn't seem to have an opinion of it, it is weird that she's uncharacteristically quiet about that topic."

Hearing his name mention, Naruto quipped. "The way both of you take makes it seem that we've gathered a few more audience than what I had expected. It would seem that I will have to increase the level of my barriers against onlookers."

"Hey! Those current ones are already giving me a hard time to trace the both of you since you kept relocating! Why don't you just focus on your spars and let the audience enjoy?"

"Asuma-san, with the way you say you audience motivates me even more to step up. The last time I checked the detection seals I set up; there were only four of you. The only reason I had let you watch was because you weren't always there, now that you have attracted even Kakashi-sensei, it won't be long till there's more to come. I've made up my mind; I will take action after this match. I cannot have a number of you know all of my tricks, and I can't get stronger if I can't practice them on my spars. What is a ninja without secrets?" Though Naruto's tone was levelled, his implications no joke.

Asuma and Kakashi understood the teen's point of view; most seasoned ninjas would if you asked them. Even as allies, it was unhealthy to reveal more information than what was needed. It wasn't an issue of trust but more of security against third parties. The old saying goes 'A true ninja never lowers his guard, for an enemy can have eyes on everything'. Even both the Jounin's could say with no doubt that even them, who had known each other for a long time would not dare to say that they knew all of their secrets.

"Fine, but don't blame us if you can't receive pointers. The main reasons why Jounin senseis are a must during spars are to calculate the growth progress of their students and point out their flaws to further enhance their growth."

"Then do you give Shikamaru pointers then?"

"Of course I do!" Asuma said without skipping a bit.

Naruto waited for a few seconds before replying. "I see." While saying this, his gaze was levelled at Kakashi with an unreadable look. "It would seem that Shikamaru was a bit luckier than me in this regard."

"Don't be like that Naruto-kun, I was just busy on…other things." Kakashi placated Naruto.

At that, Naruto didn't bother to reply and instead put his focus back to the match at hand. The reason why he didn't reply to Kakashi was not because he found the excuse to be repetitive but rather, he refused to reply because it made sense which made him rethink his previous thoughts on his teacher earlier. True enough, Kakashi had seemed to be quite busy these past few weeks. Naruto had put up various seals on all of team seven's members and even included Shikamaru, this was to so that he would know when they were currently on their home's and would save him the effort of going there to know if they were there as well as it made it easier for him to leave a message if needed though he had never told them of this action he took. This way, he could vouch that Kakashi was indeed rarely on his house for days on end, Naruto would even go as far as to say that his sensei spent more time at Naruto's apartment that his own; Naruto even reserved a guest room for Kakashi due to his recurring visits.

Though the reason for this development was unknown, Naruto had a good inkling as to what Kakashi was doing in his free time. The silver haired man had always come to Naruto's home a few minutes before the night, during these times he would visit –which was more days of the week than not- He would come exhausted and full of sweat. Kakashi would always seem to be eager to eat up Naruto's cooking which meant that his energy was almost always spent. His deep slumber when Naruto checked up on his room at times also meant that he really exerted a lot of effort. All of the facts point to one conclusion…and that conclusion was, Kakashi was training! While Naruto was a bit discontented that their sensei was paying less attention to them than what a sensei should. Naruto still respected as the man didn't spend his free time on just simply slouching. Naruto was even happier to know that this had only been happening when they had been taken on as a team, perhaps he was motivated by his students?

As Naruto was lost on his thoughts, both Jounin's continued to trade guesses as to why the Nara was seemingly more motivated than he normally was. Naruto finally noticed this and decided to give them a break by answering the question.

"I promised a reward to Shikamaru if he won. The same offer was not given to Sasuke as the reward was unfit for him. If Sasuke does win… I'll still find a way to give him a consolation… that is if he asks for it."

With the question finally answered, the three once more concentrated on the match at hand.

* * *

N

* * *

It had been already seven minutes since the last time that Sasuke had retaliated but he still found no room for another chance at a comeback. The acceleration of the shadows had stopped at the five minute mark and Uchiha felt sure he could safely say that this was its current peak. While the speed was indeed stable and he was getting accustomed to it, Shikamaru was also getting accustomed to his movements. He knew it was only a matter of seconds left before he was caught but he still refused to back down. At the current state of things, he was spending more chakra on speeding himself up than Shikamaru was at attacking him. He had deducted this on the reason that the shadows were thinner and thus, cost lesser chakra than before. The shadows being thinner didn't mean that they were easier to evade, in fact it was the opposite, and they were faster and more flexible than they were before. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Sasuke forced his mind to come up with a solution, he knew that it wasn't good for a ninja to lose his cool but he would rather lose fighting than give up right now.

A myriad of thoughts idea's came up on his mind but none of them could work in this situation; too little time for preparation, too small of a room for movement and even his dwindling chakra pool was an issue too.

 _'There's no way that this technique is that perfect, there has got to be a flaw to it! If only…If only I could find a way to strike back…Wait!."_ Suddenly, the thoughts of his previous actions all came down to him " _That's it!'_

Sasuke's eyes widened in realization as he remembered a tidbit of information _'Stupid! Why haven't I thought of that! His shadows deflected my kunai earlier! This means they have a physical form! The answer was that simple! This technique isn't **Kage Mane** no jutsu!'_

The Uchiha took a glance at Shikamaru, giving him a cocky smirk as he coated his palm with a considerable amount of chakra and struck the nearest shadow with as much force as he could muster in the moment. He watched in satisfaction as he heard an audible impact when it made contact.

The stricken shadow shivered in recoil after taking damage and hastily retreated to their source, the other four had paused the moment Sasuke had struck its companion.

Sasuke didn't wait for a moment to allow the shadow user to recover and burst forward towards his position, now confident that the shadows could do no harm if he was able to launch a pre-emptive strike. The very same moment he burst forth, the remaining shadows retreated to the shadow user, outrunning Sasuke.

Even though Sasuke had already gone full speed at running, the shadows were still a bit faster than him and were able to arrive at their source faster than the Uchiha, just as they did, Shikamaru hastily started a string of handseals, finishing it just before Sasuke could come close. Shikamaru seemingly finished his jutsu and mouthed his jutsu with no sound, irritating Sasuke as he had no idea just what the shadow user had done. Sasuke was forced to halt a few meters in front of the shadow user, unsure what to do with the current situation. The shadow user had already finished the handseals for a jutsu so it was dangerous to get too close without knowing what type of jutsu it was.

A few more moments passed but the situation showed no sort of development, this ticked off Sasuke even more.

"Don't tell me you're going to hold back that jutsu to keep me from a distance, Shikamaru."

"Who says it hasn't been casted yet?"

Sasuke did a double take looking at his surrounding for any sort of change. "I don't think that's the case though, I would have felt the chakra spike when its cast otherwise."

"Then why did you do a double take to look around?"

"I'm not a sensor so it's possible that the spike passed through my senses. Also, I can never be too sure when fighting against you. What's more troubling is that you never once, verbally said any of the names of your jutsu's on our spars so I have to be careful. I can't let you snatch this victory. You seem more motivated than usual, this makes me want to win even more, I'm guessing Naruto promised a reward right? Do I get it if I win?"

"Hmmm. How does it feel knowing the answer against my technique was so simple?"

Shikamaru's deliberate change of topic didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke nor to the onlookers nearby.

The Uchiha looked annoyed for a split second but he schooled his expression immediately "It made me feel stupid a bit but then again, I did a research on the Uchiha library about your clan's techniques before. It was a bit lacking of course due to clan secrecy. At first, I was careful not to get caught since I thought it was the **Kage Mane no jutsu** but it turns out this one is different, right? "

Shikamaru kept his silence; Sasuke took this as a signal to continue.

"I had realized that it was different and risked the chance since I knew that the **Kage Mane** was intangible but yours were different as they were capable of deflecting projectiles. The risk was calculated and I'm satisfied with the results myself."

"How is mine different than the normal ones? I mean, didn't you just say that they lock enemies in place? Doesn't that mean that they have to be tangible to bind enemies?...You're contradicting yourself Sasuke" Shikamaru, a glint in his eye passed that made Sasuke shiver.

Sasuke looked annoyed for a moment but recovered immediately. "Don't take me as a stupid person Shikamaru. The shadows don't have to be tangible to bind an enemy. If it was that simple, the Nara clan would have been wiped out long before Konoha stood. I've read in the Uchiha records that they bind enemies by overpowering control over a person's chakra network."

"Overpowering enemies by controlling their chakra network? Doesn't that description sound familiar?" Shikamaru answered cryptically.

"What do you mean by familiar?"

Silence.

"Tsk, if you're not going to answer me. Then I'll just have to take the answer by force" Sasuke made to move forward but wasn't able to take even a step forward as a voice stopped him.

"Like this."

Sasuke's eyes widened for the umpteenth time this match as he heard Shikamaru's voice from behind him and felt something below his neck at the same time.

Overcome with shock, Sasuke could only mutter. "…..How?" his voice filled with surprise and utter shock, unable to comprehend the situation.

Shikamaru didn't answer his question. Instead, Sasuke felt the object below his neck disappear, replaced by a stinging sensation in his palm. He grimaced as he felt the blade cut through it, a tiny streak of crimson liquid dripping.

Shikamaru's voice once again came from behind him. "Now shift your eyes towards your opponent once more and see for yourself."

Sasuke did as instructed and saw the once standing shadow user in front of him slowly fade out of existence, signifying that it was simply an illusion.

"It seems that I get another win. Before you say anything, it was declared the moment I put the kunai below your neck." Shikamaru clarified. He had to; the Uchiha had the tendency to be stubborn even when the match had already been finished. It was like this whenever he won a spar against the Uchiha, it was either win unconditionally through knockout, or rub the details in the Uchiha's face. Though this attitude of the Uchiha was getting better as time passed by, Shikamaru knew that he was still far from cured of his arrogance.

Sasuke turned to his back as and asked Shikamaru with an annoyed face. "The handseals were for the Genjutsu. The question is, how did you manage to cast it on me when I was on full alert? I had Kakashi test my resistance against Genjutsu and the results are nothing to scoff at, I'm resistant to any Genjutsu below high C rank. So how did you catch me on that D rank Genjutsu with me on full alert?!" Sasuke's tone rose till he was almost on the verge of screaming. When Shikamaru kept his silence, Sasuke's rage built up even more. **"Answer me!"**

Shikamaru showed a disinterested face as he calmly waited for the Uchiha's outburst to finish.

 **"There you go again demanding answers as if you're entitled to everything. Are you angry because you lost? Or are you angry that because you lost without knowing the reason why? We've been practically drilling this into your head. SA-SU-KE! The world doesn't revolve around you so stop being an arrogant self-entitled prick! "**

The unexpected force of Shikamaru's scream forced Sasuke to take a step back. The clearing also became silent for a moment after the outburst, broken only by a set of chuckles coming from a nearby tree. Guiding his sight towards the source of the chuckles, he saw the group of Kakashi, Asuma and Naruto; each with an amused faces most probably due to the uncharacteristic action of the Nara.

With his pride hurt, Sasuke was about to retort when Naruto dropped down, motioning both him and Shikamaru to come close. They did as instructed not long after.

"Not bad Sasuke, you managed to crack Shikamaru's strategy in just 3 weeks. Too bad he was still 2 steps ahead of you."

"2 steps?"

"He didn't just trap you in an illusion. In case you had broken through that Genjutsu, he had also already set up a substitution at the same moment thus he would be able to escape should you have faked being caught in the illusion."

"Tsk!"

Shikamaru walked behind Sasuke and patted him in the back in an attempt to console him. "That makes three wins for me. As of now, our record is still at 4-3, with you on the leading spot."

"You can continue your talk at my apartment later, I have something for the both of you to do. Sasuke, get everything on this grocery list." Naruto handed Sasuke a piece of paper. "You're well liked so be sure to capitalize on making discounts." Sasuke made a disgruntled voice but complied nonetheless. Naruto then took out another piece of paper and called out Shikamaru.

"Yes?"

Naruto handed the paper and Shikamaru looked at the piece of paper, all he could see was random scribbles which prompted him to give Naruto a questioning look.

"Bring it to your father, tell him I'll do what he was asking me to do and he'll know what to do then. Make sure to tell him that I need to have everything on the list or else it won't work. That's all. You can go."

At this, Shikamaru nodded and made his way without any questions. Naruto didn't wait for that though as he shifted his gaze towards the two Jounin's nearby, watching one of the two's eyes glint in shock for a very short period of time, not even a second before they recovered. Even the most seasoned ninja would have missed that glint had they not been looking for the very exact thing to look for. Though Kakashi had kept his cool, Asuma decided to reply with a smile, not the tiniest hint of what was previously there in his eyes.

Naruto allowed his gaze to linger for a little bit more, not showing any sort of reaction to the both. He then noticed Asuma's mouth move for the tiniest bit, to which Naruto gave away a smile that looked more like a grin. Satisfied with his actions, Naruto left without waiting for Asuma's response.

* * *

N

* * *

 **(A few moments earlier)**

Kakashi and Asuma dropped down the branch a few moments after Naruto did so. Both Jounin's watched the three interact.

"With the way he commands the two of them and his uncanny resemblance with that man, who else wouldn't notice that he is his son? And that's not even mentioning the more prominent one's." Though Asuma's voice was held down to minimum, one could not deny that the tone held a tint of melancholy and nostalgia.

"You should know better than talk about that topic in his vicinity Asuma. His senses are far stronger than most of his age, probably even stronger than yours. With this range, even if you whisper, the chances of him hearing you are still too high."

"Ha! you can't be serious?"

As if answering to his question, Naruto finished interacting with his teammates and switched his gaze at the two of them; his look blank and devoid of emotion which made the two surprised for a split second, Asuma especially. Had it not been for his years of training, he knew they would have been noticed, but with the look Naruto was giving him, He was unsure if his years of experience had done anything in this situation. Feeling a little unnerved with a much less experienced individual giving him that look, Asuma decided to step up the act and give the kid a smile.

Expecting the teen to take up the bait, he didn't expect Naruto to not give a reaction to the act.

 _"Don't you think that he's a bit too perceptive for his age, Kakashi?"_ Asuma's voice could barely be heard as it was barely a whisper.

Kakashi felt like face-palming himself.

This time -after Asuma's whisper- Naruto seemingly heard his whisper and decided to direct his response to Asuma, a smile, though it looked more like a grin or smirk, a smirk of knowing to be precise. Naruto didn't even wait for his reaction before he left. This made Asuma feel that he had just lost a competition he hadn't even decided to join.

Kakashi shook his head at this interaction. "The twelve years you spent with the daimyo has made you soft Asuma. Being unnerved by the gaze of a Genin? Tsk, tsk, tsk."

Though Asuma knew that Kakashi's message held no bite, he still felt a bit stung with its implications. Unable to come up with a comeback, Asuma decided to say the most common reply a man would to another when all talk is lost. "Oh yeah? Why don't you and I spar right now? Pretty sure I spent my twelve years in a more productive way than you did, Hatake. I could take you on any day of the week!"

Kakashi only replied with an unimpressed look and said. "Dream on." With this, he vanished with a puff of smoke leaving Asuma alone in the clearing.

The wind blew a cold breeze and a crow passed, the sound it made eerily sounded like 'Alone, alone!'

* * *

 **N**

* * *

 **(Naruto's Apartment)**

The delicious aroma of blueberry sailed through the air as Naruto took out the blueberry pie from his oven. Putting the pie in the center of the table, he arranged the tableware's along with the dinner meal. There were a few variety of food present in the table along with the ever present rice. In the table could be seen, Smoked Striped Fire country Salmon, Mashed potatoes, Two flavours of ramen –one vegetable and the other cow meat- as well as Fried chicken with tomato sauce.

Satisfied with the presentation in the table, Naruto looked at the wall clock.

 _'They should be here in less than a few minutes.'_

As if answering to Naruto's thoughts, the voice of Shikamaru along with Sasuke entered his hearing, seemingly coming from the living room.

"…So you were saying, you injectedthe chakra for the Genjutsu when I punched that shadow of yours?" It was Sasuke's voice that spoke.

"Yes. To make it simpler, I injected the chakra for the Genjutsu when you struck my shadow. Since it was just a simple foreign chakra injection, it didn't do any harm thus preventing you from noticing the injection. Also, I specifically injected it when you spiked your chakra to strike my shadow, which was why you didn't feel the slightest amount of change. Finally, it's just a moulded chakra made to match your own so it won't be noticed by you when it finally stays at your system."

"So that was what the handseals for!…to activate the dormant chakra and cast the Genjutsu from inside my defences!" No wonder I didn't feel any chakra spike. I've been trying to look out for the spike from you not even knowing it had already penetrated my defences. Now I understand! It's why they're tangible, it's because they're not only made of yin chakra like the regular technique but they're also made with yang chakra. With both spiritual and physical part(yin&yang) of chakra present, you will be able to produce a method to induce Genjutsu once it catches your opponent and not just lock them in place."

"You pretty clever to deduce all of that with just a few sentences as clues. Yes, all of those you just said are correct. Though there are a few flaws such as; I'll have to mould the chakra specifically per target, not a big problem since I'm some sort of a sensor myself. The illusion is also very subtle once it takes place so it's almost impossible to detect once activated. Its power lies on how much damage you can deal in one strike since the illusion breaks the moment the enemy takes damage no matter how minimal it is. Its strength should be at least high B rank nearing low A, though with the amount of preparation it takes, it can't be considered any higher than average B rank."

Both teens arrived at the dinner table at the same time. Both had also lightened up after seeing the contents of the table.

"You just made your own B rank Genjutsu at the age of fifteen and you make it seem like a walk in the park? Leave it to the genius Shikamaru to say things like that." Naruto welcomed with a smile, shaking left and right.

"It's not actually 'make' per se, it's modify. In actuality, all I did was add yang chakra to the technique and mould the chakra so that it can turn into a Genjutsu inducing technique, a Nin-Genjutsu."

"I bet you're the first in your family who thought of doing that." Sasuke injected.

"Actually, there was somebody else…Ughhh, never mind. I'm too hungry for this talk."

The three then seated themselves and prepared to start eating but was halted when the doorbell rang.

Naruto shared a gaze with Shikamaru.

"It's him." both said at the same time.

"It's him."

Both Naruto and Shikamaru looked at Sasuke with a questioning look.

"What? I'm not that good in chakra sensing but I'm pretty sure there's only one person who could be in the back of that door."

"Troublesome."

Naruto made three handseals then the door was heard open. Not a moment too soon, a blur shot pass and fourth seat in the table was set up almost instantly, a silver haired man in its place.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I had to help an old lady cross the street." The man made the excuse while scratching the back of his head.

Naruto looked with a glare. "I don't remember inviting you this time, Kakashi-sensei."

"I invited myself in. After all, it's my student's house right?"

"*Sigh* fine, make yourself at home."

Kakashi eye smiled and prepared to start eating but stopped when he noticed both Shikamaru and Sasuke looking almost expectantly. "Is something wrong?"

"They're waiting to see you remove your mask as you eat."

"Oh….I see." Kakashi looked at the two and chuckled.

* * *

N

* * *

 **(The next day, Higurashi Ninja equipment shop)**

Naruto went through the entryway with a satisfied look on his face, a plastic bag in his right hand and a huge scroll in his left.

"Naruto! You're back! What took you so long? It's been three weeks." The voice of a girl welcomed him from the counter. Both her hair and eyes were dark brown in color. She was wearing a pink sleeveless qipao-style blouse(traditional Chinese dress) and her hair was styled as two buns on the sides.

The girl then came out of the counter and run towards Naruto, barely stopping a few inches before colliding with him and proceeded to take Naruto's baggage.

"You didn't have to do that Tenten, they weren't that heavy."

The now named Tenten temporarily dropped the baggage and shushed him with a waggle of a finger. "No can do Naruto. You're one of our best patron; And not to mention, our most reliable supplier for Fuinjutsu stuff's. Can't have you leaving due to 'poor treatment' you know."

"You wound me Tenten. Surely you don't think I'd betray old man Higurashi with that reason." Naruto said with a mock hurt face

Tenten grinned before she stuck out her tongue. "Maybe, maybe not." She turned to the door towards the forge and shouted. "Grandpa! Naruto's here!"

Not a while later, an old man in his late fifties came out. Much like Tenten, he also had dark brown hair and eyes though some of them had already turned white due to age. Although he was clearly on the edge of his fifties, his physique still retained that of a seasoned warrior due to his continues work in the armoury and forge.

The old man walked towards Naruto and ushered Tenten to take Naruto's baggage to the backroom. "Naruto, my boy. You're back! what took you so long to come back? Don't tell me you found another buyer?"

The blond haired teen made a mock hurt face which prompted the old man to laugh. "Haha, just kidding kiddo, I know you're not that kind. I'm guessing Genin life's hectic enough to hold you back from visiting here."

Naruto's face lightened up as he replied. "You said it, old man. I can't believe they call those chores as missions. Yeah, it's been that hectic. I'd wager that our team hold the record for this month's squad with highest d-rank missions done. It's like our sensei is purposely doing it to avoid training us. We haven't even learnt a single thing from him that wasn't taught from the academy already." His face turned sour as he ended his speech.

"Your sensei's that Hatake kid right?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Tenten told me. You know, that kids been a little obsessed with you since you introduced yourself to her, she keeps asking me how you were able to get that strong in that fast pace. Good things she's calmed down by her sensei's training regime. Anyway about your sensei, you shouldn't be too hard on him. I'm sure you already know but… he's actually an ex anbu with no prior teaching experience, he just came out of the program less than two years ago so he's probably still adjusting. Life in that program isn't easy I'm telling you, trust me, I've been there; adjusting to the normal life is even harder, takes years."

Naruto gained a thoughtful look. "Thanks for the advice old man, I'll keep it in mind."

The old man smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair.

"That's what I like about you, boy. You always look out for room for improvements. If only every other younglings out there had the same mindset as you then this world would be a better place. On the same topic; you know you could actually help him in a way"

"How?" Naruto emphasized as he cocked his head sideways with a questioning look.

"It should have been his job but since I just said he's new to it… Why don't you subtly instruct him about the things you believe you should be learning? Or better yet, why don't you ask him about things you want to know and learn. He's one of his generation's best, probably the best so he's bound to know a LOT of things."

"Thanks, will do." Naruto nodded.

Their conversation stopped there as Tenten called out from the backroom. "Hey Naruto, Grandpa! Could you come over here please? Naruto brought a new fuin and I don't know what it is."

Both complied and walked towards the backroom. There, they saw Tenten looking at a sprawled out scroll with divided sections-each with a different fuin but a distinctly similar pattern.

"I've actually finished those before the graduation but I had to make sure they don't have any problems with them, they're called 'Seasonal breeze seals'. Not for combat but great for various reasons. Basically, all they do is release a different type of wind breeze depending on which season you prefer so as to say; cool snowy for winter, warm and fuzzy for spring, stuff like that. Those seals allow you to feel the different breeze of the changing seasons any time of the year. I'm planning to sell them to hotels, hot springs and other establishment so you don't have to buy them." Naruto said.

"Whoa! Sugoii! Now we can have the cold winter feels while staying through the hot springs even during summer." Tenten said ecstatically.

The old man nodded in a sagely manner. "I agree. The limit of Fuinjutsu truly is, only your imagination. I'm glad that you do not only focus on research towards combat but also improving the quality of your living. Most with your potential would only think of growing their power through combat type innovations."

"Someone once told me, 'What's life without a little fun?'." As Naruto said that, a blurry image of a perverted white haired man came in his mind.

"Well then, that someone must be a fun person."

Naruto trailed of his thoughts as the image passed…It had been a long 6 years since his transport to this world. Just as the gatekeeper said, his memories of his previous world were diminishing little by little. By now, only glimpses and vague images came to him every now and then. He knew sooner that even that would stop and he would completely forget that he had come from a different yet similar realm.

He chuckled at the particular thought of forgetting neither where he came from nor why he came here. _'I don't really mind forgetting though. I actually like this place more than that other. Hmmm… I wonder who that perverted looking man was, I'm pretty sure he was somebody important to me.'_ He had unknowingly changed to a smile as his thoughts drifted to the unknown man.

"To…Ruto…aRuto…Naruto! Snap out of it."

A finger snapping in front of his face snapped him out of his deep thoughts. He shook his head to clear out his mind as he smiled to show that he was okay.

"I'm sorry; I trailed off my thoughts there. What were you talking about Tenten?"

Tenten looked at him sceptically "You seem to be in a really deep thought back there. Goodie good memories? I haven't seen you smile that natural, until now. Must have been some memory eh?"

"Yeah, it is. Or I think so? It was kind of vague yet somehow…when...when I think of it I…I don't even remember the whole thing, just bits of it yet somehow…" Naruto's trailed of, his face forming into a serene smile once more. "Somehow, even with just the thought of it in my head…there's this feeling of contentment and happiness flowing from inside of me. It's weird actually. I haven't felt like this before…not that I remember, I probably did but I was too young to notice."

"Sounds like a lost memory, kid."

Both teens swivelled towards the old man who had spoken, intrigue written in both their faces. The old man took it as a sign to continue.

"No human has perfect memory, at least that's what I know. There are a few who have great memory, the third Hokage for example. He was dubbed as the 'The Professor' due to his great knowledge on any field –combat or not- thus meant he had great memory. But as I said, nobody's got perfect memory. Some memories are bound to be lost, forgotten never to be remembered once more. Our brain has to make room for more information, its common knowledge taught in the academy, right?" He asked both teens.

*Nods*

"Then how come you get strange emotions from those lost memories?" The bun haired teen asked.

"Tenten, the mind forgets but never the heart. The heart remembers emotions from those memories but not in the way the brain does. Emotions are complicated; in a way, they are timeless, they can't be measured, can't be calculated but can easily be manipulated. Emotions are strange in a way that you can feel multitude of it for a single object, yet on literal state of things, liquid can't be gas or solid at the same time. It may shift states but they will never be the same thing at the same time. People aren't actually fond of their actual memories but rather; they are fond of the emotions intertwined within those memories. It is why everyone tries so hard to not forget memories; they do it because they cherish the emotions they had felt and they don't want to let go of something so precious. The heart can neither be too full nor too empty as even the slightest glimpse of a memory will cause a long forgotten emotion to sprout once more." The old man stated in a sagely manner.

Naruto looked at the man with an unreadable expression.

Tenten looked with a blank expression. "That was kind of deep but… Okay, it was nice but just a bit…cheesy, I guess?"

Naruto opted to ignore the bun haired girl's remark and chose to focus on the old man's words. "Does this mean it is possible for me to retrieve a lost memory?"

The old man laughed and patted him in the back. "Ha! We live in a ninja village Naruto, how can't it be? The Yamanaka can do it in a jiffy, I'm not sure of the cost but it should be pricy. I wouldn't recommend it for you this early either way, Naruto. Tampering with the mind requires great mental fortitude for the both the host and delver for them to be kept unharmed. In your case, the visitor should probably be the one worried. I'm sure even the clan head would refuse, your mindscape is a special case amongst others after all."

Naruto eyes widened as he realized what the old man was implying. "I guess, I'll just have to be content with what I have of it left, eh?"

"That you do, Naruto. That you do." The old man once again pat Naruto in the back, this time, in a consoling manner. "Now why don't we go ahead and let you explain the other new stuff's you made? I'm sure the other one's just as interesting as the last one."

"You got it old man….Okay so this one's a side project and it's…."

* * *

 **N**

* * *

 **(A week later: Hokage tower)**

Team seven stood in front of the Hokage's desk. The Hokage by himself was looking in a contemplative manner on the person who had just spoken.

"I see. So Kakashi, do you believe that your team is already equipped with the proper mind and skillset to perform a higher rank mission? They're fellow fresh graduates have yet to request such a task." The Hokage's hands were intertwined and held just on the mouth level.

Before Kakashi could answer, a voice from the back called out.

"Hokage-sama, if I may."

"You may speak, Iruka."

"Hokage-sama, I believe that team seven is not yet equipped to take on such a task. My students have yet to gain the proper training to go outside the village and the only C rank missions left are those of outside the village. Naruto and Sasuke may be skilled but what about sakura? She may be harmed unnecessarily; I believe they should wait a few more months before they can request a higher ranked mission. It is only normal for a fresh graduate after all."

Sakura looked hurt at the Chunnin's words but kept her silence.

At this, Kakashi stood his point. "I mean no offense but they are no longer your student's Iruka, as of graduation, they have been under me. Also as you have also said, both Naruto and Sasuke are skilled. Now what they need is live stimulus outside our village walls where their safety is unguaranteed. Both of them have shown great potential inside the walls, which is why we need to put them into test even earlier to further enhance their potential. If they get too strong without actual combat experience, they might find it hard to adjust accordingly, as such this request is unavoidable. Sakura herself is admittedly far from them. That however is due to her civilian background. As she is the only daughter in their family, she is pampered and thus have not been given chance to know what danger exists out there. I believe this mission will give her the push to strive better and catch up to her teammates."

"But Hokage-sama…"

Iruka had tried to argue Kakashi's point but was stopped by the Hokage's raised hand.

"That's enough, Iruka. I believe Kakashi has made his point." The Hokage spread three papers in his table and motioned each with a finger. "Now, these three are the only C-rank's available for now. The first is a bandit clean-up mission, which I won't recommend to you for obvious reasons. The other one is an ingredient gathering and the last one is a package delivery. I believe you should let your students be the one to choose this time, Kakashi."

Kakashi nodded and ushered his students forward.

The three observed the papers for details, while the details were simple and minor, it was common knowledge in the academy that should it be possible, a ninja must gather as much information about the mission as possible before performing the task. The Hokage had left the bandit clean up in the table even after not recommending it for unknown reasons.

After a while of observation, it was Sasuke who spoke up first. "The package delivery mission seems simple enough but I do not think it would be a great first mission outside the village." His message was mostly meant for his two companions.

"Why wouldn't it be Sasuke-kun?"

"The destination set here is the marsh village, which is located just next to hidden swamp village. Both of which, aren't exactly the most convenient places to be for newly minted Genin's like us; especially to you, Sakura. The ingredient gathering on the other hand, Hmmm… do any of you two know what a Chocobo* is?"

Though a bit hurt with the Uchiha's last remark, she still seemed to be excited to jump for a chance to be helpful. "I do, I do."

"Go on."

*Cough*Cough* "Ahem, ahem. Chocobo's are a breed of flightless birds characterized by their vibrant coloured feathers, each kind consisting mostly of only one hue at a time. They are also known to have a distinct odour, and an unforgettable chirp, "kweh!" Due to their gentle nature and quick feet, they are domesticated and often used as a mode of ground transportation, though some species can travel through the skies or water. OH! I forgot to say… their size is unlike of any other bird as they can be easily the size of an adult man on their prime age." Sakura finished with a squeal and a blush, murmuring about how cute the creature was.

Ignoring the girl's antics, Sasuke continued. "Their size indicates that this ingredient gathering won't be a walk in the park, but at least we won't be forced to adapt to a new environment since it's still within fire country. In this case, I vote for choosing the ingredient gathering as our first C-rank. ?"

"I've heard their meat also tastes first class."

Sakura tried to bonk Naruto in the head but was unable to do so due to Sasuke's glare thus she opted to give Naruto a piece of her mind instead. "Naruto, that's rude. You don't talk about eating a cute pet candidate to a girl. Jeesh, no wonder you don't have a girlfriend!"

"I don't need one and also, I hope you meet a carnivorous one, let's see if you can still can them cute. The gentler ones which are domesticated are herbivores after all."

"Kill Joy! Don't you have anything else to do in your life than train and ruin other people's fun." She then gained a sceptical look. "How come you know a lot about them?"

"I own one."

Silence.

Naruto's words caused various reactions to the people in the room; Sakura was slack jawed, Sasuke's eyes widened along with Iruka, Kakashi's eyebrow quirked while the Hokage looked uncertain.

*Knock**Knock**Knock*

"Unfortunately, as interesting as it sounds to know more about a fresh Genin who owns a hefty priced mount, it would seem that I have more duties to attend to and as such…"

Hearing the Hokage's tone, the Genin stood straight, ready to receive orders.

"Team seven; I hereby assign you this C-rank ingredient gathering mission outside the village walls. Any questions will be answered by your Jounin sensei." Sarutobi handed the mission paper towards Kakashi "You may now take your leave."

"Hai! Hokage-sama."

The three Genin bowed before leaving through the door.

* * *

 **N**

* * *

 **(One hour later: Village gate)**

Team seven stood in front of the village gates, all present minus their Jounin-sensei. The three had arrived almost at the same time as it was taught on the academy 'For a mission, a ninja must neither be late, neither too early but always just on time'. While Naruto and Sasuke seemed calm and patient, sakura was not.

Sakura pulled her hair in frustration. "Ughh! I can't believe I expected him to be early, I should have known better! I could have prepared more! Ughhh!"

"Doesn't the academy teach kids to be always calm and collected? Hmmm, it seems the academy standards have fallen for quite a bit." The lazy voice of their sensei said.

Sakura was about to argue but was cut off by their sensei introducing another individual along with an interesting steed, a green Chocobo. "Team seven, meet Vivi Nefertari*, a self-proclaimed Chocobo-knight. Her companion Chocobo is called Karui."

Vivi herself was a light blue haired beauty with a common dark iris. She was only a few inches shorter than Kakashi and had a curvaceous body accompanied with a well-endowed bust. She had a cap that looked like a mimicry of a yellow Chocobo's head, the eyes were big stitched beads whilst the beak was of unknown material; it even had feather's on top with a red ball connected to a string on it, dangling beside her. Her top outfit was a stitched yellow long sleeved hoodie that seemed to be thick, with brown and blue gloves that don't cover her fingers. Her belt was hidden as the upper garment covered it but a sword sheath present on her right hip, the shape of the sheath suggested that it was a curved sword. She wore white short over blue pants which would have seemed strange but was complimenting her figure. Her footwear was a simple brown boots, white on the toe part. All in all, she looked like a human attempting to look like a Chocobo and succeeded somewhat, as a rider and not as one.

Vivi walked towards toward the three as each properly introduced themselves. Upon finishing their introductions, Kakashi clasp his hands, calling the attention of the Genin's along with Vivi. "Now that the introductions are done, why don't we get going? The day's early and the destination is not that far. If we start now, we should reach there by sundown."

"But sensei, don't we need to keep on an average pace since our client is with us?" Sakura said as she looked towards Vivi who, just now, decided to chuckle at the pink haired teen's words.

*Chuckles* "I'm not your client sakura. I was sent by the client to instruct you on how to collect the materials as well as to guard and deliver them after collection. This way, the moment you finish collecting them would be the moment the mission is finished too. You shouldn't be worried about defending me too; I could just as easily defend myself from any jounin out there, bar your sensei, he might look like a nobody but he's pretty good at what he does. No offense Kakashi-san."

"None taken."

"And so, that's why we should be leaving as early as possible" Vivi looked at the sun above the horizon "It should be somewhere between 8:30 to 9:00 right now. On your mark kids, get yourselves ready for the fastest sprint you'll be experiencing since your birth!." With this, Vivi rode Karui, letting the mount walk slowly towards outside the village gates. As Karui stepped outside, Vivi turned her body towards team seven and waved at them. "What are you waiting for? Sundown?"

The three Genin's looked at each other and nodded, great resolve etched in their eyes. They stepped outside the gate's together bringing a smile towards their sensei's face.

 _'Not bad, looks like their starting to get the meaning of teamwork. A small step, but I'm sure sooner or later. Sakura's going to be a great part of the team.'_ With this thought, Kakashi followed.

"Sakura, hop on my back, I'll carry you."

With her maiden's heart speaking, sakura turned pink in embarrassment unsure of what his sensei actually meant. "You…you don't need to do that sensei. I can run fine."

"You can run fine but not fast, at least not fast to catch up with them."

"Oh…I guess that's fine then." A bit disappointed, sakura went on to hop on her sensei's back. Positioning herself nicely so as to not fall, she unknowingly took a sniff on her sensei's hair. "Your hair smells great sensei, it's so calming, like….like…like menthol."

"Yeah, I actually use eucalyptus flavoured shampoo."

Sakura nodded to that. Looking around, she saw her teammates blank looks and finally realized what she had just done. Turning red again once more for the umpteenth time this day, she frantically waved her hands in denial as she explained. "This is not what it looks like Sasuke-kun, I'm not cheating on you."

Instead of getting a reply from the Uchiha, it was Vivi who spoke.

"As far as I'm interested in your juvenile romances, I've already read the wind and Sylph has replied, there's a great road ahead of us if we leave now."

"Who's sylph?" Sakura asked, temporarily distracted from her previous embarrassment.

"The spirit of the wind of course! How in the world don't you know? I can practically smell scent of her wafting out of you…Oh wait a minute." The Chocobo knight then narrowed her at sakura, scrutinizing her from head to toe before she turned her head towards Naruto. "It was from you, Naruto! Phew, It's been a long time since I saw somebody whose bond with sylph is that strong for a long time. You were even able to overpower the essence of ifrit and terra from these two." She pointed her looks at the two other Genin.

Vivi slowly rode Karui towards Naruto before she continued. "We've got to hang out sometimes… sometime when sylph's already introduced himself to you. That time, I'll be welcoming you warmly as a fellow blessed of the sylph." Vivi then turned her head back once more towards their destination not letting them give their reactions. "Now before any of you ask what that means! Let's go ahead and race, we've got a full day ahead of us!"

Each member of team seven had their own questions about what Vivi had just stated but all had opted to stay focused on the task instead, they could question her all they want during the travel after all.

Team seven stepped beside Vivi, who was riding Karui, all of them ready to start the run."

Vivi turned to Kakashi. "Good thing you thought of carrying Sakura. We would have been held back by a bit had you not thought of it. Not that I mind, it's just better this way. Her leg muscles do look like they haven't been trained for standard ninja travel."

"Well, what can I say? The academy standard has been pretty low these days. Can't compare them to these two, they're practically the cream of the crop this year." Kakashi replied with an eye smile.

"Is that so?...Okay then." Vivi then pulled out the curved sword in her hip and raised it upwards before shouting **"Mount!"**.

"Wow!" The three Genin's couldn't hide their amazement as Vivi was suddenly engulfed in a faint glow and started morphing, her clothes at least. At the end of the transformation, the once yellow parts of the dress turned the same color as the Chocobo she was riding, vibrant green, turning her outfit –including the hat- into full green bar the white shorts. Even her once dark iris was now green with a faint glow.

"From now on, you must call address me as "Green Rider" since I'm currently mounted with a green Chocobo."

Sakura from Kakashi's back couldn't help but ask. "Weren't you already mounted before you transformed?"

"Back then, I hadn't activated a contract with Karui yet. It's what gives me the right to be called a 'green rider'. The transformations not just for show too." Vivi smiled and her eye's glowed brighter for a bit before they turned back to normal "Being mounted to Karui this way means being one her. We share the same eyes and mind, thus we are practically bonded by a very strong connection and not to mention, I get a physical boost too as well as I can command her to do her signature moves. All in all, I'd say it's a pretty nifty skill." Karui chirped 'KweH!' as if in agreement.

Before any of them could ask once more, Vivi jerked up as if suddenly remembering something. "Oh! I keep forgetting the time. We need to leave now, Chocobo mounting isn't infinite. It has some sort of cooldown too so let's hurry up." Vivi turned her mount towards the direction of their destination; this time crouched signifying she was preparing for a sprint. "Race me if you can boys, On your mark…set…" Karui's eyes sharpened as she spread her wings, clearly not big or feathery enough for flight. **"Go!"**

Karui sprinted, her wings spread open allowing her first leap to span over fifteen meters, surprising all the Genin present. The Chocobo continued to run for almost a ten seconds before Naruto and Sasuke could get over their surprise, Naruto first before Sasuke.

Sasuke looked around for signs of Kakashi but found none so he opted to look towards Vivi's direction. By now, there was only a silhouette of her riding Karui left along with two… "Huh?" He squinted his eye's, covering it by hands to prevent the sun from striking it.

Now without obstructions, Sasuke could finally make out what the other two silhouettes were… They were Naruto's and Kakashi carrying sakura.

The voice of the gate guard broke Sasuke out of his stupor. "I think you should start running now, Sasuke. If you don't start now, you'll be forced ask passer-by's for direction. Didn't that blue haired chick call it a race? By the way, if you pass by tanzaku gai, please…"

The Uchiha didn't wait for the gate guard to finish his sentence before he sprinted towards his teammate's general direction.

* * *

 **N**

* * *

 **(With Naruto and the others)**

"I didn't think you would be this fast Naruto. Easily catching up on Chunnin level speed, eh?" Kakashi's ever present eye smile was present as he talked to Naruto.

"I'm barely keeping up sensei." He lied

"Oh, really? Then we should speed up more then. A friend of mine once said, to increase your strength, you must strain the muscles even more. And what better chance to do that than now?"

Instead of Naruto answering, it was Vivi who interjected. "I wouldn't recommend that Kakashi-san, Sasuke has yet to catch up and I know Konoha can't risk having their last Uchiha missing."

Kakashi looked at his back noticing the Uchiha catch up slowly. "I guess your right about that."

* * *

 **N**

* * *

 **(Seven hours later)**

The sun was already setting when the group arrived in their current destination. Kakashi had dropped Sakura not a while ago, Karui had done the same with Vivi, allowing the girl revert to her former state; both Kakashi and Karui looked as if still in full health, no other sign of fatigue present except the tiny beads of sweat in Kakashi's forehead. Naruto and Sasuke on the other hand was a different topic; while their demeanour was controlled, the rapid rise and fall of their chest's as well as their sweat stained clothes indicated mild exhaustion, Sasuke more than Naruto.

"Kakashi wasn't lying when he said you two were exceptional, Naruto and Sasuke. That run was easily on low Chunnin speed maintained for seven hours yet you still seem to be up for more! People like you prove that there's still hope for a better hope for the future… You see, a lot of aspiring ninja's today think more along the lines of flashy jutsu's and heroic tales than practicality. I do think that you should involve your other teammate in your training's more often. After all, you never know. Maybe she's more than meets the eye? Perhaps a hidden potential is underneath all those insecurities."

Although she had not liked the term insecure, Vivi's words still made a smile go up with Sakura's face, a flicker of light made its way on her heart, signalling her hope and resolve to become stronger, igniting by a bit.

Kakashi decided to enter the conversation by patting both Naruto and Sasuke's back with controlled strength. "Naruto, Sasuke, since we arrived here earlier than expected. I'll have you two collect firewood and some meat for the night. It's still around 3 to 4 o'clock so you can take your time. Just don't go too far, whilst this is still within the Fire country, the nearest outpost is still a few hours away so don't take any unnecessary risk unless the situation forces you. Understood?"

"Hai!"

"Good, and make sure to conserve your chakra too. We are in the wilderness right now, who knows what danger lies ahead of us. The only security we have here is ourselves so we need to conserve as much as possible. Don't worry, I'll give you a chance to train once you come back."

With his instructions done, Kakashi ushered the two to their way.

"Sensei, what should I do?"

"Hmmmm, you can set up the tents, Sakura. Then after that, practice some more chakra control exercises . Vivi and Karui are scouring the area for any dangers and irregularities, I will be joining them shortly but don't worry, we will still be within hearing distance."

Sakura looked around and noticed that the pair had already left. _'*sigh* I didn't even notice them leave.'_ "Hai! Sensei, I'll be practicing chakra control exercises after setting up the tents."

"Good." With that, Kakashi left with a swirl of leaves.

* * *

N

* * *

(With Naruto and Sasuke)

Their task given to them by Kakashi had been pretty simple, to collect wood and food. The first had been easy enough for the two as the place was littered with dry branches due to the lack of rain in the forest in the past few weeks. What the two had trouble with was finding the food source.

While they did bring some rations and chakra pills to last for a few days, they knew that Kakashi had purposely sent them out to let them learn to survive outside the walls. The only problem was, there were no signs of berries, fruits and even animals within the immediate vicinity so they had to travel just a bit further.

As they were new to the environment, they kept their vigilance and travelled together, not making unnecessary sounds that may attract the unknown. The pair strolled around the area for an hour till their path lead them to a cave.

Walking towards the entrance of the cave, Sasuke stopped just a few steps before they could be inside the cave and inquired Naruto. "You think there's food inside there, Naruto?"

"The air smells a bit of blood, it should be pretty deep within the cave since I can only vaguely smell it."

Naruto closed his eyes to focus for a few minutes, a preparation for using a sensory jutsu. Sasuke knew this as he could feel something subtly hit his skin at timed intervals.

"I focused the sensory jutsu towards just this cave so it should be more potent. Earlier, I did not smell any of the blood's stenches that belong to a human so we can be sure that no human is out there. The cave isn't too deep, around a hundred meters at most to reach its deepest. There are seven individuals of unknown species inside."

Sasuke flexed his arms and gave a devilish grin. "Finally, some meat."

"I think we should retreat and ask sensei for his opinion in this matter. Although, I am capable of guessing their numbers, I have no idea as to what their combat levels are or what type of beast these are. We can't risk a confrontation."

"Hn. Aren't you just being cowardly."

"My instincts tell me to step back. The six individuals, I don't worry but the seventh one bothers me. I can only faintly feel its presence, so it is probably resting or it may be trying to hide its presence."

"And?"

"Even though I can only faintly sense it, the presence it is giving off is strong enough to overpower the other six. We should step back before…"

"What?"

"We should leave. **Now!** "

Troubled by Naruto's tone and expression, Sasuke decided to look at where Naruto.

"It's just a pair of nasty red glowing eyes, what's wrong with that?"

True to Sasuke's words, just in front of them. On the darker area of the cave where the sunlight could no longer reach, six pairs of red glowing eyes that held a menacing aura in them peaked out. Sasuke was about to tease Naruto of his cowardice when a seventh pair of eyes opened, this time much bigger and much more menacing.

The hair on the back of his hair stood and he was forced to take a step back as the eyes seem to stalk closer.

This was when he finally decided to heed Naruto's order however; a deep raspy voice from inside the cave stopped him.

 **"Hrghh…Finally….. human meat"**

That was when pure uncontrolled aura of killing intent washed over them and glued them on the spot.

* * *

Chapter End

* * *

 **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu- FireStyle: Great Fireball Jutsu**

 **Kage Nui no Jutsu*- Shadow Stitching Jutsu**

 **Nidaime Hokage*- Second Fireshadow(aka. Tobirama Senju)**

 **Chocobo- Final Fantasy franchise beast reference.**

 **Nefertari Vivi- One Piece character reference.**

AN: Phew, its finally out of the box. I've been tampering with this chapter for a while now so I am very happy I can finally post it.

I know it's been a while since I last updated so I hope you don't get disappointed with this chapter.

Anyway, reviews are always welcome.

Peace Out

-Shunozuko18


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